Lived in a Harem

Southland Times, Issue 22767, 18 December 1935, Page 12

Lived in a Harem

FRIEND OF DUCHESS OF KENT. Miss Grace Ellison, who wrote the authorized life of Princess Marina, died suddenly recently in Berlin. Miss Ellison was a personal friend of the Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece and was on her way to stay with them in Yugoslavia when she died. She was a remarkable woman who had travelled widely and published many books on her experiences. She was particularly interested in the problems of Turkish women, and lived for six months in a harem in order to obtain first-hand information about their lives. She met Mustapha Kemal and admired him greatly. Through him she was instrumental in securing changes which gave the Turkish women the opportunity of ,university education. She was the first British woman to visit Angora during the Turkish War of Independence, and was present at the singing of the Briand-Kellogg Peace Pact. The Sultan of Turkey decorated her with the Order of the Chepohat in diamonds. Although Miss Ellison was a keen champion of greater freedom for the Turkish women, she was in favour ot polygamy as practised in Turkey. She regarded it from an economic standpoint. “I think it is better to have four women supported and protected than to have one well cared for and three sent out to struggle and starve,” was her theory.