Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1939 AN IMPORTANI ALLY

Patea Mail, 13 November 1939, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1939 AN IMPORTANI ALLY

.BRITAIN is extremely fortunate in the present war in having Turkey as a friend and not as an enemy as in the previous war. The Dardanelles, instead of being closed to Britain are now open to •her, a fact which gives her increasing strength in any negotiations she may make with Russia or any other of the European Powers. The fact that Turkey has uncontrolled command of the Dardanelles makes her dictator, President Ismet Inonu one of the most important men in Europe. He is a worthy successor to that wonder man, the late Mustapha Kemal, who carried through such far reaching reforms in Turkey, abolishing both the monarchy and the Caliphate, and ruling Turkey on modern lines. President Inonu’s history is a romance in itself. He is duly fifty-eight years of age, small of stature, with a soft pleasing voice. Bom in Smyrna, the son of a Turkish magistrate, he decided after leaving school that he would follow a military career. Joining the artillery he took part in the Balkan w.ors, where he gained distinction. his soldiers referring to him as “the cidhl general.” In the Great War ho whs associated with Mustapha Kemal, the future ruler of Turkey. The war over Inonu went into hiding in Constantinople jvA escaped disguised as a blind beggar, and joined up with Mustapha Kemal, who was always lighting the Greeks. At the town of Inonu,. Ismet gained a groat victory over the Greeks, and when later the Turks were compelled by Kemal to adopt a surname, Ismet chose the name of Inonu. At the Lausanne Peace Conference Turkey was treated generously and was not dismembered, the members- of the conference realising that Turkey could be a useful ally if allowed to remain a whole nation, without being partitioned up among other Powers. Inonu next became Prime Minister of Turkey under "--vial, a position he retained for fifteen' years. Fanatics in Kurdistan engaged in a holy war ag-

aiuM Turkey, but this was rapidiiy subdued by Ismet and Ivemal. Mis enemies sought to poison him whilst he was travelling by train, but a doctor whom he had taken the precaution to have with him saved his life, lononu’s next work was in the diplomatic world. For centuries the Balkan Slates had been enemies of Turkey, and had been continually at war with each other. The folly of these States in endeavouring to exterminate each other was patent to both Kcmal and Inonu, and Ismet was busy in an effort to impress upon the people of these countries the value of peace... Fortunately he was successful, and peace with Greece and the Balkan States and the Eastern aphorism “When Greek and Turk embrace, Heaven hugs the earth,” became an accomplished fact. Ismet Inonu received an enthusitstic welcome from the Greek people, and the treaties that he signed arc not “mere scraps of paper,” like other well-known treaties, but important factors for peace today. Upon the death of Ivemal there was only one person in Turkey who was fitted by nature and ■ experience, and that person was Ismet Inonu, and he was elected accordingly. Strongly pro-British, Ismet Inonu can exercise a powerful influence for good in the world to-day. It is more than probable that but for him Russia would have taken a more prominent part in the world war tlian she is now taking, and things would have been much more difficult for France and Britain. As. it is, Britain can afford to regard the present situation with equanimity, realising that although opposed to a powerful and unscrupulous foe, she is infinitely bettor off than she was in the coresponding period of the Great War. With Inonu as a friend no Gallipoli or Palestine campaign tp fight, and with America as,siting now with the arms embargo ~ removed, there need be no doubt as to the result of the war.