Evening star., 1943-11-21
Russia Suggested Eden Talks
With Turks, Washington Hears
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

|Wfh IurkS> W.
BY BLAIR BOLLES.
The conversations between For
eign Secretary Eden of Great Brit
ain and Turkish Foreign Minister
Menemencioglu were undertaken
at the suggestion of the Soviet
Union, it was learned yesterday
with a view to facilitating a Rus
sian advance into the Balkans by
getting the Turks to open the Dar-
danelles, Sea of Mamora and the
Bosphorus to ships carrying war ma
terials for Russia.
/ The Russian request that Mr.,
Eden, representing a country which
has an established treaty relation
ship with Turkey, talk with the
Turks was one of the final actions
at the Moscow conference. The Rus
slams already have laid the ground
work for vigorous political pene-
tration of the Balkans by the ap-
polntment Of V. G. Dekanosov as
Minister to Bulgaria. A former Vice
Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Mr..
IDekanoSov is one of the most en-
ergetic and ablest Russian diplo-
mats.
New Details Revealed.
/ New details of what took place
during the historic Moscow sessions
among Secretary of State Hull, Mr..
Eden and Foreign Commissar Molo-
tov are now coming to light.
Before Mr.. Hull set out for Russia.
he received suggestion that he
meet Mr.. Eden en- route. The Brit
ish government wanted an Ameri-
can-British understanding on terri
torial questions.
Secretary Hull declined the Brit
lsh invitation. He wanted to ap-
proach the Moscow conference with
out previous commitments. He
feared that the Russians would sus-
pect in a Hull-Eden conversation
some planning injurious to the
SovietS. q
On arrival in Moscow Mr.. Hull
took sounding of Russian wishes
whether they wanted to talk about
general matters or to get down to
details. He soon reached the con-
clusion they wanted above all to
establish general understanding.
Avoided Two Issues.
The Secretary approached the con-
ference with determination that
it was going to succeed. He did
not want to endanger it by pressing
on the Soviets questions with which
they did not wish to deal. With
that in mind, he passed up two mat
ters:
l. Territorial questions, in which
the future nature of Germany is in
volved.
2. The nature of military occupa-
ton. What is to be the role of
occupying armies?
Mr.. Hull took to Moscow the prin-
cipal proposition In which he was
interested-the four-nation collec-
tive security declaration. He had
tried in his September speech to
give the world the gist of the nature
and implication of that declaration,
which was prepared here by Sumner
Welles, Hamilton Fish Armstrong
of the Council on Foreign Affairs,
and other experts.
The inclusion of China in the
declaration was an American sug-
gestion. American official declara-
tions repeatedly emphasized the
role of China as one of the leading
powers.
Stand on War Criminals.
The immediate interest of the
Russians was the declaration on the
treatment ~of war, criminals. Mr..
Molotov presented that document
to the conference. It followed
closely and went beyond a state
ment on war criminals which had
been circulated earlier from the
Soviet Embassy here.
At the suggestion of Andrei Wish
insky, former vice foreign COM
missar, the Italian Declaration was
brought up for consideration. In
his. duties as Soviet representative
on the Mediterranean Commission
(known officially as the Military
Political Committee), Mr.. Vishinsky
had reported to Moscow his views
on how the political side of the
war being fought in Italy could be
improved.
The Russians apparently had it in
mind that something like the Italian
Declaration would be adopted when
they announced their acceptance"
of the Italian armistice. The word
conveyed something less than ap-
proval. The Italian Declaration was
intended to guarantee that the fight
against Fascism would bring the
triumph of democracy.
Polish Question Dropped.
The British took a sounding as to
whether the Russians would con-
slider establishment of diplomatic
relations with the Polish govern
ment. The British did not get
enough encouragement to pursue
the question. 1t is believed the
British had the Polish question in
mind when they suggested the pre-
liminary Eden-Huu conversation.
The British are said to have hoped
that some Polish territorial COM
promise would open the way for