TURKEY'S CHOICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18334, 26 February 1923, Page 7

TURKEY'S CHOICE.

SITUATION AT ANGORA. ASSEMBLY ACUTELY DIVIDED. KEMAL ON SIDE OF PEACE. By Telegraph—Press Association— (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. CONSTANTINOPLE. Feb. 24. The Ministers of the Angora Government have drafted a reply to the Allied peace proposals, which will be presented to the National Assembly to-day. The Assembly is acutely, divided, Kemal Pasha, Ismet Pasha, and the majority of the Ministers being moderates on the sid? of peace. THE ANGORA CABINET. PRO-BRITISH MINISTERS. Unlike the European Cabinets to which we are accustomed, the Cabinet of the Grand National Assembly is composed of a very young, and some say inexperienced, element, possessing, nevertheless, the only too evident desire to do their very best :n the interests of the nation, wrote a special correspondent of the London Morning Post, who was at Angora in December last. Probably the oldest member of the Cabinet is only 42. Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the President, has always had faith in "youth." Fethy Bey, the.Pasha's right-hand man, also believes in youth. He himself was a Minister when only 32. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet are quite independent of one another, i.e., tho Prime Minister can fall and the Cabinet remain. Also, after closer examination, one sees these Ministers are often deprived of both the initiative and responsibility we are accustomed to give to our Min isters. They might better be classed as "heads of departments." Most of the men who form the Cabinet can be described as very able men. Although the Ministers do not form a Cabinet, as wo understand the word, they meet to discuss the most important questions to be brought forward at the National Assembly. At these meetings the President of the Assembly, Mustapha Kemal Pasha, even though he" does not form part of the Cabinet, may preside is his privilege. As a general rule, however, it is Rnouf Bey, the Prime Minister, who presides. These Ministers, also, are not chosen by their President nor by the Prime Minister, but elected by the Grand National Assembly. English-Speaking Premier.

Raouf Bey is a man of about 40. .Formerly a naval officer distinguished himself in all the Turkish wars of this last quarter of a century. He speaks English without even an accent, and. stranerelv for a Turk, no French. As Marine Minister in Izzet Pasha's Cabinet it fell to bis lot to c;o to Mudros, accompanied by General Townshend, then prisoner of war with the Turks at Constantinople, and sifn •with Admiral Calthorp the armistice which closed hostilities between the Turks and the Allies. Elected member of the Chamber of Deputies in Constantinople, be did not hesitate to show himself a firm supporter of Mustapha Kemal Pasha in Anatolia, and for this reason was one of the first arrested bv the English and sent to Malta. He was first elected First Vice-President of the Grand National Assembly, and in Jnlv last Prime Minister. The correspondent states that < Raouf Bev was formerly a warm . admirer of England. "Whether in the future we are the friends we were depends entirely on England,", he said to me. , "We can do no business with England until peace is signed; but in Turkey, where everything is to be done, there will naturally be a jrreat field of competition, and England, if .she cares to compete,, will take her place with the other Powers." •_ "In six months from now," I said, "we shall be the jrreat friends we once were." "That again denends entirely on England," he repeated. I asked Raouf Bey whether it was true that big concessions had been given to France in .exchange for her political support. He replied that to France, who was first to understand the Nationalist movement, Turkey owed a great moral debt; which he had himself acknowledged and called the world to witness. "For concessions, however, the field is open to all. We shall accept the best terms for ourselves."

Ho Love of Germany. So much has been written about his unfortunate reception in London that Fethv Bev, the Minister for the Interior, is well known to us. And Fethy Bey, like Mustapha Kemal Pasha and Raouf Bey, is an admirer of England not of her politics., The w':r certainly has cured them for ever of their love of Germany, and, as General Moueddine Pasha, instructor of Mustapha Kemal Pasha, said: "All the corrupt things in our army seem to come from Germany." As an army offioer—military attache for two years in —secretary of the Committee of Union and Proeress, and Minister in Sofia, and finally Minister for the Interior in the Izzet Pasha Cabinet. Fethy Bev has had a varied and useful career. During his stay in Sofia, . Mustapha Kemal Pasha was his military at—they met at Salonica, where" they were both staff captains, and have been friends ever since.

Like his colleague Raouf Bey, Fethy Bey was arrested and sent to Malta, where he at least learnt the fluent English he diplomatically pretended not to speak during his stay in London. On his return from Malta, he joined Kemal Pasha and became the very active Nationalist we have known ever since. .

The correspondent describes Ismet Pasha as the third outstanding member of the Angora Government. Ismet, who is Minister for Foreign Affairs, was head of the Turkish delegation at Lausanne. ~/