Kemal Ataturk's New Turkey

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23115, 13 August 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Kemal Ataturk's New Turkey

too much confined to textbook maxims; too little concerned with the human factor. The Turkish soldier who had starved in Salonika, who had writhed in pain in the bad hospitals of Tripoli, who had known exile 011 many occasions, and who could mingle unnoticed in the sordid medley of Near Eastern port life realised how limited had been the experience of these German field-marshals. In a Hard School Fighting the Anzacs, the Italians, and the Greeks had taught him the primal necessity of adopting military plans to suit the natural and human conditions with which he had to deal. The upshot of it all was that he felt that the German General Staff had little to teach him, and it is interesting to note that the wooden stolidity of Hindenburg and the pompous and patronising behaviour of Ludendorff 20 years ago should still be influencing the policy of Kemal to-day, when he is once more confronted by the problem of German mentality. When Kemal was rebuilding Turkey lie did not rely overmuch on German military advisers. His main aides were a generation of hardened young veterans trained, as he was, in the brutal guerilla warfare of the lands from Palestine to the Georgian frontier and able to deal with the Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, and the tens of other racial units of thoso parts, because they knew what, was

SYDNEY, Auk. 5 AT the time of writing, Kemal r\ Ataturk is a very sick man. -*■ His life has been a very hard one since he was born in Salonika years ago' and he has always suffered from various grave disorders. Even when he was fightlng the Australians and New Zealanders on Gallipolj he was suffering tortures, and ever since he was elected President of thj Turkish Republic in 1923 he has been a martyr to acute kidney troubles. This probably accounts for the impatience he has frequently manifested when he encountered opposition to his reforms. Realising that passing years were his greatest enemy, he constantly strove to accelerate the pace of his changes, an d nothing irked him more than the traditional obstructionism and opposition to change which are innate J n every Turk, especially uhe official class. Nevertheless, although he started with the most difficult task all, he has done more constructive work than any other post-war dictator, and it is only now that the world i s beginning to realise the leaning of the rise of the New Turkey. Voice in World Affairs . Turkey has once more become a voice in international affairs, and for good or or evil she finds herself in one of the with regard to the Gern?an scheme for' south-eastern expansion. A man like Kemal, relentlessly on bv the desire to get tilings _°no. naturally admires German effiCl0 "cy- As a dictator lie fully realises the ea se with which new projects can be expedited by the resources a dictatorship Thus ho knows that most of the 1

great schemes of public works which have transformed Germany under tho Third Reich could not be undertaken in a democracy. Further, as a professional soldier, he admires the German military machino. On the other hand, he will,never forget the reception he got when he visited Germany during the war. When the plans of Ludendorff and Hindenburg were being explained to him ho saw various weaknesses and suggested improvements, only to be snubbed. That experience made him think •that, after all, the German s,\stem of military education was too hidebound.

A Nation Reborn Prove A Great

OBSTACLE TO GERMAN EXPANSION

By Professor S. H. ROBERTS, Challis Professor of Modern History, the Sydney University—(Copyright) Kemal Ataturk, unlike other dictators, has been more concerned with the internal development of his country than with thoughts of conquest. A man both of vision and action, he has transformed Turkey; since the war, into a virile and progressive nation, whose friendship Great Britain has been at pains to cultivate.

going 011 in tho tribesmen's minds. Kemal's main aid from Germany was in offering an asylum to largo numbers of expelled German professors when ho established a new State university at Ankara, his capital. Naturally these refugees were not inclined to make his views on Germany any rosier. Finally, he had to face an invasion of German capitalists and industrialists. Notwithstanding the clear policy of "development by Turks for Turks," tho Germans insidiously offered everything, from toy soldiers to tanks. Questions of payment were waived aside as of no moment. All the Germans wanted to do was to pour goods from tho heavy industries into Turkey. Change of Tactics When the Ataturk proved too wily to bo taken in, as the Yugoslavs and the Greeks had been by similarly specious offers, the Germans changed their tactics. Agents of such firms as Krupps then offered to build various factories in Turkey so that the Turks themselves could manufacture their armaments and other commodities. This proved more acceptable to Kemal, though ho knew quite well that questions of service and replacement would leave Turkish industries very much under German control if German firms built tho factories and' provided tho machinery. His spies told him how the Yugoslavs had found themselves

burdened with German guns (in return for the crops of Yugoslavia) and howthose guns were worthless without special ammunition from Germany and without replacements for vital parts that wore out suspiciously quickly. Kemal himself desired his guns to go oil' when 110 wanted them to. He did not want them to bo immobilised unless ho agreed to Germany's diplomatic advances. Relations with Russia Another factor entered in these same years. Kemal's relations with Russia had improved, until tho two Powers were practically allies. Stalin had been very clever in cultivating good relationships with Turkey (you can't beat a Georgian for diplomacy in, the lands south of the Black Sea!), and Kemal had drawn very heavily on Russian armaments factories. He was under 110 illusions as to the superiority of the Russian aeroplanes and tanks, and his staff officers profited greatly by attending Russian manoeuvres, which, after all, were conducted under conditions very similar to those in which the Turks had to operate. You must always remember that Kemal is an intense localist. He believes that the Near East is tho geographical centre of the world, and that conditions are rapidly making it tho strategic centre as well. The new insurgence of Powers like Arabia and J ran (Persia) strengthened him in this conviction, and he became certain when Hitler developed his new Mittel Europa scheme. That scheme was to obtain world predominance by raising a belt of influence stretching from Hamburg, on the North Sea, to Basra, on tho Persian Gulf. This immediately forced the issue, in so far as Kemal was concerned. If such a scheme proved successful (and the absorption of Austria, the pressure on Czechoslovakia, and the crumbling of the Little Entente made the hopes of success very bright), then Turkey would ho right athwart the path of German expansion. The Young Turks Kemal had been too intimately connected with the intrigues of the Young Turks and knew too much about German influence in Turkey before the war to have any doubts what this meant., if Hitler built up his Mittel Europa, Turkey had to bo absorbed, willingly or unwillingly. With Russian voices ever in his ear, and—as it now turns out—with not a few quiet suggestions from British representatives, he decided on his policy. Some time before 110 had played a leading part in bringing about the Balkan Pact, a union of the south Balkan Powers, which necessarily had to act as a bloc standing against Italy's Imperialism in the eastern Mediterranean. 111 this Balkan Pact Kemal has been tho leader, and it has risen to a new coherence just'as thoLittlo Entente (farther north) has shown signs of crumbling.

So much for his western neighbours. Kemal also planned a union among his Asiatic friends, and 011 July 8 of last year signed the Treaty of Saadabad, by which Iran, Irak, Turkey, and Afghanistan pledged themselves to secure political security in tho Near East by a network of mutual arrangements. Each signatory agreed to prevent the formation in its territory of associations antagonistic to any of its neighbours, and each promised to respect the interests of tho others. The actual wording doesn't matter very much. The vital point was that a group of States, under Kemal's inspiratimi, had formed a solid bloc on the Asiatic side of Turkey, just as the Balkan Pact did on tho European State. This meant that a new factor has entered the situation in so far as German expansion was concerned. Mittel Europa was a fine plan if the Germans had only to deal with a congeries of disunited and petty States in tho Balkans and western Asia, but if Turkey could speak for confederations that stretched from the Danube to the Euphrates and beyond the position was very different. "Fox of Ankara" Not for nothing was Kemal called "the Grey Fox. of Ankara." There were even hints that he would revive the old Caliphate, but ho has always mistrusted the religious weapon and knows full well what a dangerous weapon religious intrigue can be among tho bitterl.v opposed sects of the Mahommedan world. This year Kemal has been frantically active, again because he has felt that his frail body is nearing its end. On February 28 he announced a new and closer treaty with Greece; next he tightened the bonds between the members of the Balkan Entente at a very successful meeting at Ankara; then he improved the position with regard to Iran. From this he went on to gain a victory in the dangerously complicated question of tho Alcxandretta Sanjak (which threatened a conflict with France); and finally he arranged an important Credits Agreement with Great Britain, an agreement which is most significant because it shows that Britain is fully aware of Germany's economic diplomacy, and because it is a pointer as to where Turkey will stand in the event of any general line-up of rival forces. The agreement with Britain was not an easy one to conclude, because Turkey is a poor country and she had little to offer tho British in the way of increased trade. Quite apart from Kemal's fixed policy of making as self-sufficient as possible and .using toreign exchange

as a weapon in his country's defence. The negotiations lasted for more than three months, but in the end Britain offered to make available £16,000,000 for Turkish industrial development and rearmament. The leading Turkish bankers visited London and all difficulties were smoothed out, although the British had to face the direct opposition of the Germans, headed by Krupps, who have always been most interested in Turkey. Last year Britain secured a smaller contract in Turkey against a Krupps tender; now the British won. once more. German Combines All the aeroplane flights of Dr. Schaeht, all the manoeuvres of the officially aided German combines (the I.G. and the A.E.G., the dye and engineering combines respectively) had come to naught. Turkey stands today, in the midst of her second FiveYear Plan, committed to British aid. The country lacks capital and credit. Britain is supplying it. Kemal wants to modernise the Eastern Provinces of Turkey. He is concentrating on mining and electricity. He is starting to build railways and ships and bridges; he has actually launched the first all-Turkish submarine. He has

ended rural feudalism and created a sturdy peasant proprietary; now lie is creating an industrial proletariat •• as well, and restoring Turkish self-confi-dence by a doctrine of ceaseless work. He is changing the very psychology of the Near Last, and in so doing, has become a major element in . world affairs. . • i At the moment he is astride two continents. He controls leagues of Powers both in Europe and in Asia, and, supported by Britain and Russia, he has converted Turkey from being a mere international pawn into a deciding factor in the balance of power. In short, he is witnessing the consummation of his life-work, for now; he knows that Turkey can never relapse into her former insignificance. Never again can the Western world speak contemptuously of "the unspeakable Turk,'' for now Turkey is becoming a modern Power ; with more than a proportionate voice in world-affairs, because of Kemal's largely Oriental flair for diplomacy; in troubled waters. That he'has finally joined forces with the Anglo-French-Russian team is to*us a matter for congratulation, for in that we see a strengthening of the cause! of world-peace. - . • (By Arrangement with the Sydney- Mail.) >.