The Hawera Star. SATURDAY. JUNE 23, 1928. TURKEY TO-DAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 6

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY. JUNE 23, 1928. TURKEY TO-DAY.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock la H&wera. Manain. Normanby, Okaiavre. Elthain, MaDgatoki. Kaponga. Alton, Hurley ville Patea. Waverlev. MoLoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Frasei Boail. and Ararata.

Leaders of itlic new Turkish Republic have, made it quite c>lear that their policy is to effect a complete rupture with the past. Amd in the many changes that have come since the Republic was proclaimed five year's ago, not one can ibe compared in. importance with the elimination of the dominant Islamic factor and the dstoblishmeint of a State of air exclusively lay character. Not only has Mustapha lvemail, the outstanding figure in the new order of things, abolished the Caliphate, but be has also substituted for the sacred law of Islam a code of civil law administered by lay courts, and has suppressed all the • Islamic religious orders' that flourished milder the old regime. Religion is mow u'O’ longer a sanction: for women s' inferiority nor a bar to the 1 marriage of a Turkish Moslem woman with n monMoslem,. The veil, the harem and polygamy are things of the past, and every child on; reaching majority —the boy at the age of eighteen and the giul at Sixteen —is free to choose' the form of lcligion to be followed. The change from a monarchical to a republican form of government and the other transforming innovations were received by the old privileged' class with characteristic Turkish fatalism, but. the suppression of the traditional turban and fez, as being symbols of obsolete beliefs and. a humiliating past, strangely enough roused the bitterest opposition. The repudiation of Islam as a. State religion was considered by the reformers as an inevitable step pf Turkey Was to bo governed on* the line's of Western countries', for so long as the Koran remained not only the Holy Book of all true believers, but also their code of law, the new State could not enact laws binding on all, regardless of their religious 1 beliefs or nationality. There are weiil-in-formed observers who see dm this- act of disestablishment the hand of. Russia, and although the economic theories of Bolshevism are mot applicable to Turkey, it is' argued > that the “ (spiritual ’’■ impulse of the 'leaders of the Russian revolution has at laisit. communicated itself to their Turkish comrades. Little,, however, is to be gained by attempting to, estimate the .influences’ that have ddetaited the new policy in Turkey, amd judgment cam. be made only on .the results achieved.. Thom this point of view it must be admitted that substantial progress' hats been made in many directions. Large sums of money have been

expended ailrcaicly o>n. the eanstmetiom of railways, and provision has been made fo(r a eompr ehenlsiv e ech cmc that will talc© tcm years to complete; adequate expenditure has been mad© on. t’lie ibmldinlg ©f Tnatiornwl roads eoninetinig the villages' with the ,provincial centres; aigiriicnltural Inrplem'emts, cattle and weeds have been distributed among and immigrants, and competent ■agricultiural instructions' have been appointed to give advice mnidl assistance, while 'commerce amid industry have, according to* statistics published’, made wonderful progress. But Mustaipha Tvemail and the National Assembly have realised that the surest, way to establish the social revolution firmly,* and to prevent. atny reversion to the ways of the old regime, is to give whole-heairtod support to the spread of education l , so primary education has been made free and icompuilisory, and it cannot be denied that although the results' are the mere beginnings of 'educational reform, they represent, wonderful progress for the labour of not. more than three' years. While the, development, of Republican Turnkey is of interest to the nations, and especially to the Balkan States and Italy, the abolition of the Caliphate is the on© aspect of the revolution,' which is unquestionably of the greatest importance to Great Britain. It .wild be remembered that British policy toward Turkey was '.substantially modified shortly after .the war on account of the remarkable pro-Turkish agitation in India, where it was argued that diminution of Turkey’s political power would

seriously restrict tho Sultan in the discharge of his functions as Caliph throughout the Islamic world. Mustapha Kemal .exploited this agitation to the utmost until he had won a favourable peace at Lausanne, and 1 then, by abolishing the Caliphate, showed the emiptinesis of tho Indian agitation, which collapsed ais soon as he took that drastic step. This result moy well teach Great. Britain, ito consider whether in the past she has not over-rated' the religious factor in her dealings with Islamic countries.