Parlor Games

U.S. Ambassador Laurence A. Steinhardt took his place last week in the long line of Turkey's suitors. He looked the situation over. He needed Lebensraum --because the small, comparatively shabby U.S. Embassy could seat only twelve guests for dinner. And he needed household goods; the Embassy did not have a set of glassware that matched. Even if he and British Ambassador Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen had stagged the leading nightclubs until 3 in the morning with Turkey's Foreign Minister Suekrue Saracoglu, there was more formal entertaining to be done. The newly arrived corps of U.S. experts and Lend-Leasers made things especially crowded.

The Present. On the crossroad of war for centuries past, neutral Turkey wanted of her suitors all the attention she could get --up to a point. The more armaments either Axis or Ally provided her 1,000,000 tough fighting men, the better. But she did not want to fight. Turkey was playing spin-the-bottle with all belligerents. As yet the mouth of the bottle hadn't turned into the muzzle of a cannon pointed at her and demanding a forfeit.

The Past. From friend of Russia, to membership in the Anglo-French-Turkish Pact, to a "friendship" pact with Germany and now to closer cooperation with the U.S., the status of Turkey had changed as the warring nations showed strength or weakness. "We are convinced," said Foreign Minister Saracoglu, "that our neutrality is useful to all the belligerents." The danger always lay in Turkey's geographical position. Hitler must either conquer or by-pass her on any thirsty march toward the oil fields of the Russian Caucasus or of Iraq and Iran.

This was the basic problem, highlighted by the massing of new German troops in the Balkans. Under such a threat the trial of two Russians for the attempted assassination of Ambassador Franz von Papen had proceeded with scrupulous honesty and little conclusive evidence. The Turks resented Russian press attacks and bullying demands that the defendants be released. But, like Ambassador Steinhardt's search for new wineglasses, the trial was incidental to bigger things. For in the spring of 1942 Turkey looked farther ahead. When & if the belligerents exhausted themselves Turkey's now neutral army might well be a factor in the future of Europe.

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