MODERN TURKEY

Evening Post, Issue 19, 23 July 1934, Page 15

MODERN TURKEY

A WOMAN'S, IMPRESSIONS

GREAT PROGRESS MADE

Having observed. the amazing progress made in late years by the Turkish women, and the interest taken in problems of the day by the women of the Ivear East, Mrs. Edith Glanville, who writes from the Hotel Tokatlian, Constantinople, to the "Sydney Morning Herald," gives an interesting description of her tour. She reached Turkey i>om Alcjvpo, travelling over the Taurus Mountains, among wild, Tomantio semen*. . ... /■/■; ■ ■.-. ■;.- : ..'

"In the hotel ballroom, people, of every nationality are dancing the latest steps," she writes. "Such beautiful clothes the dark-eyed Turkish girls are wearing, -with turbans mostly, for when tho veil w,as discarded they decided to wear turbans or toques instead of hats. I have been looking into women's work here, and it is encouraging to see. the progress made since I last visited Turkey. . The women are now occupying all,sortsof'..executive positions, ahd^dciihg' their work excel* lently—they ■are'ln- charge-of :the Government welfare-work-, and:the clinics. The baby health -centres are.^niarveljlous. ...Indeed, the days of the lati ticed window have passed in Constantinople, though-there are a few harems still in the country places! All this change is affecting the. women of all ages in the Near East, and more and more are seeking education and enlightenment in every country over here," she says. . '. ■ . , .. :

On her visit to Galileo, Mrs.. Glanvttle encountered a, terrifying experience. "I realised how the people.felt in tho time of the Flood, for the water came rushing down from the mountains around the-Lake of CTalileo with such foreo and volume that houses were washed away and smashed, by the debris. The lake, which had looked so peaceful an hour-ago, was a raging torrent. People knelt in -th& streets and prayed, thinking the end- of the world had come. While all this tragedy was being, enacted, a mother 'was taken to- hospital and an hour later her baby boy was born. Poorwoman —her husband and two children and all her worldly goods were lost. We found clothes for the baby and. we christened him 'Noah.' "What other name could we give him?" she says. • Mrs. Glanville. also mentions in her letter a conference of Moslem women she attended in Damascus. -She was most impressed hy the papers- readchild labour, marriage, and divorce being some of the questions discussed by these up-to-date Eastern women. Mrs. Glanville's interest in Armenian refugees is well known, and she relates that they are not. at all settled. There are still many thousands living jin refugee camps, and, as there is no work for them, many are literally I starving. "It is bad enough to live in a camp in your own land, but to have to exist in a country which, does not want you, and where you have no Iright, is disastrous;" is her comment on their plight. \ ". She concludes her letter with the an- | nounconient of .her departure for Egypt on the following.day, en route ; for London, and. then to Geneva. •■■■,''■'