BRIDE OF MUSTAPHA KEMAL

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18063, 9 March 1923, Page 7

BRIDE OF MUSTAPHA KEMAL

SOME ROMANCE MADE ESCAPE FROM CREEK CAPTORS. VERY MUCH IX LOVE. [SYDNEY SUN SERVICE.] London, March 1. Mr Ward Price, the special correspondent of the London “Daily Mail,” in a despatch from Angora, says that Mustapha Kemal’s young bride. Latifeh Hanoum, daughter of a leading Smyrna merchant, is a personality that will count. She was educated in France and England, and returned to Smyrna from Europe in the autumn of 1921. The Greeks, who held the city, imprisoned her father 'and arrested his daughter on the charge of spying. Slic was detained in her home for three months under guard. When the triumphant Mustapha Kemal arrived, he was invited to stay at the house.

Latifch, entertaining the London “Daily Mail’s” correspondents at a tea party, said that she worked to help Kemal to realise her patriotic ideals and mutual ambitions. “We worked together,” she said, “but there was no talk of marriage until better acquaintance brought the realisation that our fellowship must continue.

Seclusion Only in Towns. “One day from 50 to 60 friends were asked to my father’s house for tea. The mufti, or Turkish registrar, was summoned, and when all were gathered together, we were married simply and informally before them iii the drawing room.” Mustapha Kemal, when asked if the abolition of the cloistered life of Turkish women would not arouse opposition amongst the Turkish people, replied: “You misunderstand the life of Turkish women, if, you think seclusion is the rule. Eighty per cent, of the people are villagers, whose women work side by side with the men, and share fully in their existence. In towns and cities the had tradition of seclusion has been forced on women by the selfishness of men. The women are almost all against it.” The room in which the interview was given contained more precious oriental things than could he found anywhere else in the world, in such a small space—rare antique, rose coloured carpets, and glittering scimitars sheathed in gold and silvci, and set with precious stones. One of them lay beside Latifeh as she sat oh a sofa, whilo overhead hung a plaque with, a chapter of the. Koran worked in gilt and enamel.