The Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1937. A NEW TURKEY.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13470, 26 January 1937, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1937. A NEW TURKEY.

Tlie recent dispute with France over Syrian territory has brought Turkey into the news again—but a new Turkey clad in the garb of western civilisation and with her economic- and industrial policy on a par with that ot her European neighbours. For this astounding change Turkey has Kemal Ataturk to thank. Coming into power at the head of the Republican regime after the defeat of the Greeks in 1923. Ataturk and his followers were obsessed with the idea of achieving political and economic independence for their country. This entailed a fundamental alteration in foreign commercial policy and the encouragement of home industry. Turkey up till 1923 had been a medieval political, social and economic structure built on a farming and agricultural basis. Her people detested western customs and ideas and their conservative religion, Mohammedanism, opposed any change. Ataturk’s first step on comTng into power was to formulate a law insisting or. the adoption of western clothing. The importance ol this step cannot be overestimated. With their eastern garb the Turks threw over many ol their eastern ideas, ideas which were a bar to progress in their new venture. The next step was the raising of a protective tariff barrier to aid national industry. The previous free trade policy had made Turkey little better than an economic colony ot the industrial Western countries. In 1929 the first protective tariffs were brought in and Turkey began her climn to economic equality with the rest oi Europe Along with tins new industrial progress, a system of cheap credits was provided to further the interests of the man on the land, so forming a balanced nation which would be independent and self-suffic-ing. The slump of 1929-32 hampered the development of tile country, hut after that year phenomenal strides were made in the reorganisation and exploitation of the national resources. The textile and metal industries, chemical and papei industries, under their protective tariff's, made great headway and are now among the foremost of their kind in the world. Agriculture has flenefitted greatly from the introduction of scientific methods and Turkey has become almost self-sufficing. A land rich in mineral resources, particularly m gold, copper and iron, Turkey is well suited for industrialisation. Had this not been so Kemal Ataturk would have sought in vain to bring about such a social and economic revolution in such a short time. The phenomenal progress made m Turkey in the past six years can be compared only with the westernisation of Japan in the closing years of laisi century. Only a few years will have passed before 'Turkey takse her place among the major powers.