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ANNAX
COPY OF A LETTER FROM FOREIGN OFFICE
TO GENERAL ISMAY DATED WIE OCTOBER, 1944.
276
In my letter No. R 7849/G of the 12th October I suggested the importance of supplying turkey, and to a lesser degree Greece, with the additional war material of which both countries are in urgent need, and I asked you to do what you could to ensure that this question was covered by the Chiefs of Staff when preparing for the War Cabinet their appreciation on the possibil- ities and implications of an advance by the enemy through the Balkans and Syria to the Middle East.
The possibility of supplying additional war material to Turkey was, you will remember, mentioned in our telegram No. 1057 to Knatchbull-Hugessen, and I enclose a copy of his telegram No. 30 from Istanbul, in which he refers to the point. As you will see, he strongly recommends that if an offer can be made to Turkey it should take the form, not or further equipment for Turkey's use over and above those of her requirements which we have already promised, but of complete British units of aircraft,
He points anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns and searchlights.
out that the Turks are very far from being able to use either tactically or technically the large amounts of British equipment already supplied to them and would certainly be unable to deal with more by the spring.
I imagine Hugessen's suggestion to mean that the British units would be prepared, and kept, in the Middle East, and sent to Turkey only when the latter has become a belligerent, since I do not imagine that Turkey would for a moment entertain the idea of receiving British military units so long as she remains neutral. We are, however, telegraphing to Hugessen for confirmation on this point. I enclose a copy of the telegram. Something on the lines of Hugessen's suggestion seems the best solution of the problem and I hope that it will be possible for the Chiefs of Staff to give it most serious consideration. It might be possible to apply the same suggestion in the case of Greece. The question of command would need attention in both
cases.
I am sending copies of this letter to the Directors of Intelligence of the Service Departments and also to Major Tuckey at the War Office.
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