HUMAN DYNAMO

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

HUMAN DYNAMO

TURKEY’S SAVIOUR AMAZING TRANSFORMATION. NEW, MODERN REPUBLIC. October 2° marked the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, and (says the American Spectator) it focused world-wide attention upon a man in Ankara who flashes out in present Old World politics like a beacon breaking through the gloom of a stormy night. This amazing human dynamo, who opposed the Allies at the Dardanelles, and in 1922 with a motely army of peasants wearing American uniforms, tribesmen carrying German rifles, and women draging British cannon, drove an invading Greek army into the Mediterranean Sea—this lifelong warrior, Mustapha Kemal, who earned the title of Gazi, “The Conqueror” by his miracles on the battlefields, has taken one of the most hidebound/ superstitious and belligerent peoples on earth, moulded them into a modern, progressive, neighbourly re,public, steered them through the worldwide economic crisis without borrowing money, unbalancing their budget, or whining about their debts, and kept old man Mars from their necks for the first consecutive ten years ih Ottoman history. Ask an American what Kemal has accomplished, and he will invariably explain, “He took the veils off the women and substituted the European hat for the fez.” What Kemal really tore away were the veils of superstition,, ignorance and religious fanaticism. When he banned the fez, he was not concerned with what was on top of the heads of the Turks, but what was inside of them. He knew that he had to make a violent gesture, a radical change in their daily habits and customs, in order to open up their minds. In effect, his act was another Lincoln, emancipation proclamation. It freed 14,000,000 mental slaves. BAN ON VEIL AND FEZ. That the minds of the Turks were ripe, for opening was dramatically evidenced by their quick response to his ban on the veil and the fez, an edict as sensational in Anatolia as would be an executive order from Franklin Roosevelt in America that all meh wear sandals instead of shoes. For the veil, to Mohammedan daughters, was a far more intimate garment that is the brasiers to Christian females, 'and the fez was part and parcel of age-long Moslem religious ceremony. Yet in Istanbul 24 hours after Mustapha Kemal’s decree not a fez was in sight anywhere. Men appeared on the streets wearing caps, derbies, fedoras, and even women’s hats, but not a fez. The secret of Kemal’s miraculous achievements was the blind, abiding faith of the people in the man who had saved Turkey, and their readiness to follow him anywhere; and his even greater, but far from blind readiness to lead his people along paths new and strange to them. He abolished “harems” and polygamy by law. So that the eyes of his people might focus back to fundamentals and the true spirit of Mohammed’s wise philosophy, he rid his country of ancient political intrigue and modem religious hypocrisy. Not completely as yet, nor by any smg'.e predetermined action, but these things are ar. inevitable and clearly foreseen byproduce of the accomplishment of the following:— •

(1) He moved the capital away from the professional politicians and the meddling missionaries of old Constantinople to the fresh air of the hills of Ankara.

(2) Through his staunch colleague, Ismet Pasha, Turkey’s deaf but far from dumb Prime Minister, he achieved an almost incredible diplomatic victory in the Treaty of Lausanne with the complete abolishment of the Sultan-sold “Capitulations,” which had surrendered to foreign commercial interests practically all the spoil of industry and certainly all the toil of industry of the Turkish people. (3) He reduced illiteracy from an approximate 90 per cent, to an estimated 42 per cent, of the population, compelling all adults under 45, as well as children, to go to school. He spends 12J per cent, of his annual budget for education, as against 2 per cent, in the last' year of the Ottoman Government. To simplify education, he substituted the. modem Latin alphabet of 26 letters for the old Arabic script of nearly 500 letter combinations, and then went out into the streets and public squares himself with a huge chart to set an inspirational example by teaching this new alphabet to his people himself. (4) He undertook the restoration of ancient Turkish culture, opened up the art schools, ordered the Koran translated into the language of his country, and punished the rebellious Muezzins who persisted in singing their perfunctory prayers in the mosques in a foreign tongue. (5) He octupled the Sultan’s annual budget for railroads anad .material improvements; conscripted the entire male population for the building of highways; .stimulated the development of aviation, engaging American flyers to teach the Turks; and personal!.' directed and supervised the building of a beautiful, modern city of 80,000 people on the swamp lands and hillsides of the village of Ankara. CONSTITUTION OF IRON. Kemal is very nearly the same age as Roosevelt and Mussolini. Eyes blue as the Aegean, and cold as those of an Aegean fish, belying the sometimes warm smile playing about his lips. He has a constitution of iron—he has never met his equal in reserve power—he carTdrink all night on occasion, take a horseback ride 1 at daybreak, drive dynamically at his desk until nightfall, then make a good speech at a banquet, and not miss a dance after dinner so long as an attractive lady is left on the floor. He governs a patient, proud, stoical, Spartan-like and hero-worshipping people. Fine soldiers and sportsman-like in war, as British and Australian officers will testify. Home-loving, hospitable peasants mostly, in peace time, waiting and ready for Kismet’s (Fate’s) next move.

And & altogether, the ' truly great thing which Mustapha Kemal did was to take this Kismet for a ride. In the prodess a Sultan, a Caliph, a British Prime Minister, and a Greek/ King had figuratively to lose their heads, as many Turkish political and religious leaders ■ had literally to lose theirs. But 14 million Turkish people acclaim their Gazi the Saviour of his Country and the Father of their Republic.