TURKEY TO-DAY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 2

TURKEY TO-DAY.

‘GERMANY OF THE EAST."

One of the problems of the future, writes a correspondent, will be the relations of i'iurope with a race-conscious Asia, and in tlios© relations the Turn is an important element, and Ids aspirations must be understood. A danger lies in thinking that, because he is the most Western of Jtastern nations in longitude he is so in mind also. Actually, lie is Oriental through and through,'even if -he does try to adopt, a Western surface. tie is called the

“Unspeakable.” and also "tlie only gentleman,’’ and both descriptions are true—if you insist on judging __ the Asiatic by a wholly inapplicable European standard. When he entered the Great Vi ar he or Jus rulers) had two objectives. One of them was to be master in his own house; the other, to make himself what his position suggests he' might be the bridge for the West into the East in peace, the leader of the East against the West in war. The first of these objects he has achieved—at a cost. Most of his empire is gone, indeed, am. he has cut his losses, but he is master in what is- left. To every nian . there are some things that it is easier to renounce than to share, and to a link rule is one of them. It is far easier to abandon a province altogether and to recognise, .or instance, a new Balkan Power, than to keep that province at the cost of accepting reforms that acknowledge that the rayah has rights. Ho the empire that once stretched from Basra to Vienna is reduced now to Anatolia and Constantinople, and Constantinople is held as something that has little value to him, but much to others; as a prize that can be. at need, a- bribe to many, an apple of discord to all. If anv confederacy should threaten the Turk in future, he can always secure a profitable disturbance by a threat to give what he does not value to ,somebody. , In this reduced area, however, jneic are no “capitulations” and uo mil[ets -’_ no Europeans with privileges, that is to say, and no Christians with prescriptive rights. One should ask no questions as to the measuies ij which the polished Turk, who is so delightful to talk to: has secured this end. He has secured it. The land lie rules, if not “Turkish now. at least can be spoken of as such. Actually it is far from it. The Christian elements are gone, but the Moslem el« incuts left, like Kurd, Alevi, Kizilhash, and other stranger types, may be anything, but they are not Turkish. | That being so, they have to be “Turki- ; tied.” Just as in 1908. these. “Young | Turks.” whom Mustapha Kemal has | just sentenced to death, declared that | all the Empire should be Ottoman, so ] now. Up till then for centuries the ; rule had been “divide et impera.’ “Encourage all possible divisions, lor then no combination can he dangerous.” In 1908 the Government elected to reverse that policy, and declared , .that Albanians and Armenians, to men- I tion two types only, must either he j absorbed*or massacred. Troubles to,- I lowed, for some would not abandon | what the Government had forced on | them before. Mustaphags now follow- ; ing that, rule. He has turned out all : Christians, and he has lost the most ; marked of the Moslem types. He l )as ; deci/led that the rest shall he lurk, i and the policy has cost him one serious ; rebellion of Moslems already. Can lie | carry it through? But Turkey is not only to be pure I Turkish; it is to be modernised, so that ! f is may be the leader and spear-head of that new Asia, that will put Europe in its preper place. To secure this, Turkey—whose religion is Islam, for the new Constitution says so —has begmpby abolishing the Khalifate, the Dervishes, the Sacred Law. the fez. the | veil o': women, and so on. Schools and ; education are to make of Turkey the ! efficient Germany of the East. This. | 'however, is to be done without foreign | schools or foreign money, for both of them are suspect. Foreign schools | that cannot be summarily closed are to he worried out or existence. They are to lie obliged, for instance, to take a proper number of Turkish teachers on their staff, and if, as in a recent case, the Turkish teacher comes drunk to teach English girls, there is genuine astonishment at any objection being raised.a. According to another order, the foreign'--teacher must satisfy the authorities of his or her capacity to teach by passing an examination in Turkish.’ first presenting certificates to prove vaccination ami decent morality! | Those who wish to civilise the Tni'K j are asked to prove their own civilisa- i tion before they begin! j All this ts done under the shadow of j a. new constitution which, if paper he ( worth anything, guarantees everything to everybody. Liberty of conscience, speech, property, meeting, association ''shade of Abdul Hamid!) are all far more expressly guaranteed than in England. There is a new civil code. ' a new judicial structure, and they even . promise admiiiistrfive reform. V hat could he better? If law had anything j to do with practice. Turkey would have j l>een the best governed State m Europe, and one asks again. “Can tli Turk do it?” Some hold that tliev can. “Do you not believe.” said a.i | earnest American to the writer, “that i now that Turkey has become a Be- ; public she will become \\ estern and civ- j ilised." The Turk has a fine flair lor i the latest American catchword, and a | trick o' applying it in a sense directly i contrary to that intended, but can lie. ■ scorning and suspecting foreign help. j work a civilisation that rests on mech- ; anism and applied science‘ J Here tin* i ■ obstacle is Turkish inertia, and let | those who have tried to introduce the > most beneficial of reforms testify how : great an obstacle that is. The old | movement of casting out the "Giaour ’ |

'I Turkish instinct with it. This o’i has to oppose that force.

V' '‘But.” it may he asked, ••(•annul ihe Turk receive education?’ He can; and we have seen in Germane. for instance, how fifty years of deliber-ately-directed education can transform the whole outlook of a country. But can the Turk do that, with the instinct of his own inertia to fight against ? Has foreign education made the Kgyptian an effective manager oi a railway or irrigation System? H must he rememhered that the recent transformation of Turkey has been tinwork of one small clione. even of one strong man. and that there is manifestly intense jealousy against that one man. and not only among the conservatives whom he has disturbed, hid the reformers who think that he lias usurped their place. ’Further, the one man is finding himself driven -to use .the old-fashioned methods in his own deferne. The work tints depends on cup threatened life, and a life naturally threatened, for Jehu himself did not drive more furiously than Alnstapha K'piua! in Ids political '-areer. A reaction is hound to come; and the lam that the Anatolian peasant has submit ted to the removal of Sultan. Khalit, ai id Dervish does not mean that he has ceased to think on those old lines. Much of what Mnstapha Kemal has done may abide, for one can see tm wav; «for instance, of putting !,-.ck the Greek villagers into Anatoli', But Turkish democracy may work omen unexpected lines. Left to himself, the peasant would probably vote, if he

could understand voting, for govern-' meat by some one Sultan who would leave him unimproved and undisturbed. But how long will seven millions of peasants remain undisurbed in a vacuum that is both accessible and and 'rich?