740.00119 Potsdam/7–1445
No. 708
The Assistant Secretary of State (Dunn) to the Secretary of State
1
Memorandum for the Secretary
Sir Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, called this afternoon and discussed for two hours in a preliminary way a number of matters on the agenda of the Conference.3
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12. Turkey.
I told Sir Alexander that we had liked his message to Clark Kerr regarding Turkey;4 that we had not sent a message of our own since we were not a signatory to the Montreux Convention and also because the Turks had not approached us. Sir Alexander assumes that Stalin in [is?] seeking freedom of passage of warships through the Straits in time of war and felt that the main Russian objection was to the right of the Turks to close the Straits under conditions of “threat of war.” He asked whether the bases which the Soviet Government is expected to demand, should be placed under the International Organisation.5
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- Printed from a carbon copy on which there is an uncertified typed signature.↩
- For other extracts from this memorandum, see documents Nos. 140, 218, 234, 258, 319, 351, 379, 404, 470, 519, 635, 645, and 678.↩
- For a list of persons present at this meeting, see document No. 234, footnote 3.↩
- See document No. 704.↩
- i. e., the United Nations.↩