TURKEY’S ASPIRATIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 October 1922, Page 4

TURKEY’S ASPIRATIONS

A FEW months ago a gifted American, Ikssie Beatty, paid a visit to Constantinople in an endeavour to “learn the truth” about the Turk. She found that the Turkey of to-day is not the arrogant, gilded, strutting despot of Abdul Hamid’s time, nor yet the cocky, conquering warrior of Enver and Talaat s day. The Turk of to-day is a “young man in a shabby, old garment, fantastic and childlike in his dreaming, perhaps, but magnificent in his purpose, and a power with which to reckon, despite his poverty.” As is well known Turkey’s military power and her hope are centred in the Nationalist movement.. No one pretends that the Constantinople Government functions. The writer’s patii of entry into Constantinople was one which has been little travelled in these years of war, blockade and revolution. She came across the Black Sea from Odessa. Constantinople, scon against the background of hungry Russia, was not the same city the tourists 'saw. “Except for a couple, of grain ships unloading corn for the Volga famine regions, a shabby Greek trader from Constantinople, whose cargo was largely smuggled diamonds and Russian wives, and an American destroyer, there were no boats to ripple the once-lively Russian port.” A naval launch carried the winter up the Bosphorus. If the shipping was any guide, she found that Turkey had been almost as crippled in the matter of commerce as her proud neighbour. But there was no _ dearth of fighting seamen upon her waters—British, French and Creek men-of-war and others'. Constantinople, swarming with aliens, looked that first afternoon like a great house with a careless and none too reputable tenant. The streets of Pera, with its signs of pleasure pursuing, were only a piece of the picture. The writer soon learned that under this light life there were seething hatreds, grim struggles, bitter determinations and a gigantic desire. The writer found the Sultan Mohammed VI in disfavour with' many of the young Nationalists, because they believed lie was a tool of England. They claimed that ho will eventually abdicate in favour of the Crown Prince when (lie Nationalists come into full power in • Constantinople. Others, however, hold different opinions. The palaces are described as places of bitterness and poverty. “There, as everywhere, tiny are dreaming of the day when the Bosphorus will bo clear.” In an interview with the Crown Prince in Ms study at Polmabagcbc, he declared that the English nation was good Mr the Turks. Their quarrel was with the leaders. She asked the Crown Prince whether it was conceivable, that in any circumstances, Turkey would yield Constantinople. He grew rigid with a dignity that was quite imposing. “That is not a question for Turkey,” he said. “That is a question for the Mussulmans of all the world. Constantinople is the capital of Turkey but she is much more. Any attempt permanently to occupy Constantinople would bring about a holj war, calling the Mussulmans of every land to defence of the sacred capital.” Ho went on to speak of the war and attributed Turkey’s participation on the side of Germany to the mistaken diplomacy of England and France. “Wo wore pushed into the war and now' what have wc?” The visitor was also greatly impressed by the number of refugees that have flocked to Constantinople from all quarters. They live in Chrislinn churches, and Mohammedan mosques, under tents and in barracks, camp in the field and on the streets. This glimpse of Constantinople was before the Greeks were driven out of Asia Minor. Doubtless the Nationalist feeling has ' been greatly intensified - as a result, but it is satisfactory to know that the Turks have not been completely carried away, as the signing of the Mudania agreement shows. ' I