761.6711/3–2845: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State

3200. ReEmbs 3025, March 23, 5 p.m. Sir Orme Sargent24 said to us today that the Foreign Office regarded the Soviet notice to [Page 1229] terminate the Soviet-Turkish Treaty of Friendship as the first move in a Soviet plan to “soften” Turkey preparatory to bilateral discussions on the Straits. The Turkish Government has, therefore, been told by the British Government that if the Soviet Government should approach it on this subject the Soviet Government would have to be reminded of the international nature of the Montreux Convention and that Great Britain, too, was interested in the administration of the Straits.25

Repeated to Moscow and Ankara.

Winant
  1. British Deputy Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
  2. Further views of the British Government were communicated to the Turkish Government on the afternoon of March 28, the occasion being a call on Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, by Cevat Acikalin, head of a Turkish delegation then in London for financial conversations; Mr. Eden suggested that the Turks might wish to inform the Soviet Government that they were willing to enter into negotiations, and to ask for proposals, reminding the Russians if necessary that only multilateral conversations could be entered into. This information was given to the Embassy at London by sources in the Foreign Office on March 29, and was in turn reported to the Department in telegram 3246, March 29, 1945, 5 p.m. (761.6711/3–2945).