little social life. Besides, the work undertaken is too strenuous, the
people here are too much occupied with their duties--and really in
earnest about accomplishing them as well as they can--to indulge in
social life. Furthermore there are very few representatives of the fair
sex in Angora, and social life without ladies is not possible. Most
of the women here are villagers or else nurses of the Red Crescent,
Turkish relief workers and ladies otherwise occupied in assisting
their husbands, fathers or brothers in the patriotic task they have
undertaken. There are no women of leisure, no hostess who has enough
time to entertain. It can be truthfully said that every Turkish woman
now in Angora is a little Joan of Arc and the quarters being so
inadequate most of the women live together and sleep together just as
their men are obliged to live and sleep together. Everyone here works
grimly with a definite purpose and faces the realities confronting the
Cyclopean work of recreating a Nation.
“The lack of social intercourse does not however detract from the
interest of the place. The sight of the streets alone is most
interesting and edifying. Everyone is so busy and there are so many
people here that it is hardly possible to walk leisurely in the
streets during the rush hours of the day. One is taken up and carried
by the crowd. And the crowd is the most diversified and picturesque
that one can see in any place, not even barring the proverbial bridge
in Constantinople. You see, volunteers of all kinds have rushed
here not only from Anatolia, but from every Turkish country, every
Turkish village of the world and even from the most diversified Muslim
countries of Asia and Africa. It is a real Babel, but of costumes not
of languages: every one speaks Turkish. Turkish Anatolian peasants,
with baggy trousers, wide blue belts and thin turbans over their fez,
fraternize with Tartars and Kirghiz of Turkestan. Azerbeidjanian and
Caucasian Turks, with tight-fitting black coats and enormous black
astrakan kolpaks on their heads--runaways from Bolshevik Russia--are
discussing the principles of real democracy as applied to Nationalist
Turkey and comparing them with the so-called democracy of Soviet lands.
Muslim Chinamen and Hindoos are talking over the future of Turkey and
Islam. All the nations of Asia intermingle here and most of them have
official missions in Angora: Embassies from Afghanistan, Beluchistan,
Bokhara, Khiva and from the different new Republics of Turkestan, duly
accredited representatives from Persia and Azerbeidjan. The quota
from Africa is also very large and while there are no diplomatic
missions from African countries--for the simple reason that all African
countries are colonies--many are the Fellahs from Egypt, the Algerians
and Moroccans and even the Muslim negroes of North Africa who can be
seen in the streets.
“And all this crowd is active and busy. Everybody talks and
gesticulates and rushes through the streets to accomplish some purpose.
“The modern European touch is brought by the Turks from the big
centers, Nationalist leaders who have come here from Constantinople and
other large cities, clad in sack suits or in uniforms cut on western
patterns, but all wearing the black fur kolpak which has replaced
throughout the country the red felt fez as national headgear.
“In the village proper there is not a house which does not shelter more
people than it has rooms. So quite a few of the people who now live in
Angora have been quartered in small farmhouses around the country and
are obliged to commute every day to and from their business. There are
of course no suburban trains or street cars and the “commuters” are
obliged to use carriages as all the automobiles--mostly Fords--are
being used for military purposes or for transporting travellers and
goods from villages to villages. The carriage is therefore the only
means of conveyance in Angora. “Carriage” is, of course, a rather
complimentary term: true that they have four wheels and are drawn by
horses, but they generally have no springs, and two boards running
parallel to each other and facing the horse are used as seats. From
their wooden roofs hang coloured curtains and the occupants are
vigourously shaken over the uneven pavement of the streets.
“There are only a very few shops, but no one has time or leisure
to shop. The strict necessities of life can be obtained at the
open counters of the bazaars or markets and if they are not to be
found there one has either to do without or to import them from
Constantinople or from some other city. Amusement places are absolutely
nonexistent: no theaters, not even movies and of course no saloons or
bars since Prohibition is vigourously enforced in Anatolia. There are
one or two coffee-houses where a few old native peasants sit peacefully
and, over a cup of coffee or a smoke of the 'narghilé,' talk of the
good old days. The hostelry of the place has its lounge turned into a
dormitory. Travellers are at times obliged to sleep even on the steps
of the stairs, so no space can be allotted for recreation. Besides it
would be useless; no one here has time for amusement or recreation and
if you ask any one how he passes his time he will be able to answer you
with a single word: “Work,” Every one is at work to save the life of
the country, every one is endeavouring to improve the community, every
one is engaged in assisting in some way or other the Government and the
nation.
“The offices of the Government are quartered in the largest buildings.
An old barrack shelters most of them. Its enormous rooms have been
partitioned into offices with a long corridor running between them.
Every office has a door on this corridor. On some of these doors there
are inscriptions indicating the names of the departments which abide
therein. The Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Commerce,
the Treasury Department, the Department of Agriculture and all other
civilian departments are located in this building.
“Another enormous building, a former school, shelters all the
departments pertaining to every activity necessary to the national
defense. Its offices are arranged on the same style as those for
civilian activities. Thus the Nationalist Government has, fittingly,
differentiated its war activities from its administrative activities.
The departments which are engaged in constructive work, whose
activities will secure the nation's development and progress are
completely separated from those whose duty is to secure the national
defense.
“The two most active civilian departments, or rather the two
departments to which the National Government attaches the greatest
importance among those engaged in constructive work are the Department
of Public Education and the Department of Hygiene and if--as all of us
here are absolutely convinced--the programs of these two departments
are strictly adhered to, Anatolia will be in a very few years the best
educated and the most hygienic country in the Old World.
“The Government conducts its business in the most democratic way
possible. The different heads of departments are members of the
National Assembly and are, therefore, all chosen directly by the
people. They are delegated to manage the departments by the vote of all
the members of the Assembly. Each head of department is individually
responsible to the Assembly for the good conduct and administration
of his department. He is removable by the vote of the Assembly which
immediately elects his successor. The heads of the departments have
their private offices whose doors are always open to all. As the
Government is of the people and for the people any citizen who desires
to see one of his deputies concerning a matter connected with his
department has the right to come in and is received at once without any
formalities. But he has to attend immediately to his business and then
he has to leave. Efficiency is the slogan of the National Government
and for this purpose all red tape has been completely eliminated. No
loitering, no “manana” policy is indulged in. Things that have to be
done, have got to be done immediately and no one has the right to
interfere for the pleasure of following the dictates of a set routine.
Truly this is the most efficient form of government that I have ever
seen.
“The National Assembly is located in the only really attractive and
modern building of Angora. It has been especially erected to house
the Parliament and has a large meeting-room, a reading-room and
private offices for the representatives of the people. While it is not
luxurious, it is as comfortable and as serviceable as need be. It is
situated on a large square not far from the station.
“And now that you have an accurate idea of the general aspect of the
capital, now that you know that this is no place for amusements or
social activities, you will want to know something more about the
people, their ideals and their aims.
“I think that, for all these purposes, I might as well give you
a description of the two principal figures who to-day stand out
distinctly as the two leaders of the Turkish Nationalist Government;
the two national heroes who personify better than any one else the
spirit which animates so powerfully Anatolia and the whole Turkish
race. One is a man and the other a woman. You surely have already
guessed: I am referring to Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the undisputed leader
of Turkish manhood, and to Halidé Hanoum, the equally peerless leader
of modern Turkish women.
“As you know, Mustapha Kemal Pasha is not only the promoter, but the
soul and the brain of the new Turkey. That he represents exactly all
Turkish aspirations and embodies the ideals of modern Turkey is best
proved by the fact that upon his arrival in Anatolia he was elected
by the wish of the people to the Presidency of the National Assembly,
the highest executive function, and to the Field Marshalship of the
National Army, the highest military function and he has been ever since
maintained in both these most responsible positions by the general
consensus of the whole nation.
“And this has been done almost against the personal wishes of
Mustapha Kemal Pasha. He is neither ambitious nor desirous of holding
power. In fact he is what might be called a self-appointed 'power
prohibitionist.' and if he remains in power it is exclusively because
the people want him to and, being a convinced democrat, he bows his
head to the wish of the people. Of course, at the beginning of the
movement, when the national aspirations of the Turks sought some one
to formulate them and to organize the country, Mustapha Kemal Pasha
took the lead without shunning its responsibilities and without a
second's hesitation on account of the price that he personally would
have to pay should he fail in his undertaking. He set to work with the
indomitable patriotic courage which marks national heroes.
“His energy, his straightforwardness, his frankness and the rapidity
with which he made decisions coupled to the firmness with which he saw
that decisions, once made, were immediately executed became apparent
even during the first weeks of his administration and gradually won
him the full confidence and devotion of his people. This would have
been his opportunity had he desired to establish a dictatorship, had
he wanted to place his personal interests above the interests of his
country, had his democratic utterances been of the lips and not of the
heart. During the first months of the national movement Turkey was
taking the chance of seeing its individual freedom trampled once more
under the booted feet of an Abdul-Hamid or an Enver ... if the leader
who was offering himself had been any one else than Mustapha Kemal.
But the Pasha had given a few years before the proof of his matchless
patriotism and abnegation by stepping back into an inconspicuous
command after having saved his country by a series of victories at the
Dardanelles, and therefore the country felt pretty safe in confiding
its destinies to the hands of Mustapha Kemal Pasha.
“The events have proved that this confidence could not have been
better placed. Under the very guns of Turkey's enemies he organized the
national resistance and changed the prevailing state of nervousness
and despondency into an intelligent state of national efficiency
and enthusiasm. Starting with a handful of followers he opened new
horizons to the Turkish people, discouraged and broken-hearted by their
previous utter collapse. While the nation lay prostrated at the mercy
of its enemies, he stepped forth and showed to the Turks the silver
lining behind the threatening clouds and demonstrated once more to the
world that a nation which is led properly and has a will to live is
unconquerable.
“Mustapha Kemal Pasha had a double duty to perform. Turkey disarmed and
bound hand and foot, her capital occupied by the enemy, her Government
departments and administration completely disorganized, had to regain
her independence and needed therefore not only a capable military chief
but also a capable organizer and statesman. Mustapha Kemal Pasha rose
to the occasion and while he was organizing on one hand the military
resources of his country, while he was arming and training thousands
of recruits and building up factories to furnish them with guns and
ammunition and to clothe them as best he could, he was on the other
hand helping the National Assembly to formulate a new constitution,
to make a new form of government--sort of republic fitted to the
peculiar requirements of Turkey--based on the broadest and most
practical principles of democracy.
“And as soon as his military victories secured the existence of his
country and permitted him to work on more permanent matters he turned
completely to the National Assembly--resigning his commission as
Commander-in-Chief--and devoted his attention to the consolidation of
the new form of Government and to the perfection of its administration.
“But as the enemy, once more encouraged and equipped by powerful
western powers, again took the offensive and advanced into Anatolia,
burning villages, killing civilians and massacring old men, women
and children, the National Assembly turned again to Mustapha Kemal
Pasha and electing him once more Commander-in-Chief, asked him for
new victories--and Turkey did not have to wait long to have her wishes
satisfied by the military genius of the Pasha.
“Ever since the definite organization of the National Assembly,
Mustapha Kemal Pasha has spent all his energies in investing it with
the powers he held in his own hands. He has methodically and without
faltering worked to transfer his own unlimited powers as Chief
Executive and Commander to the duly elected representatives of the
people. This process of self-restriction has gone so far that to-day
the Turkish National Assembly is endowed with far greater powers and
prerogatives than any House of Representatives or Parliament of any
country. It has all the sovereign prerogatives including those of
declaring war and concluding peace. It elects its own members to the
different administrative functions of the Cabinet and removes them
whenever it sees fit and all this thanks to the restriction of his own
powers by Mustapha Kemal Pasha.
“In doing this the Turkish hero had a double purpose: he knows that the
ideas and ideals he is fighting for are not personal to him but are
shared by the whole nation and he wants to prove this to the world--on
the other hand, a true democrat at heart, he wants the entire nation,
through its duly elected representatives, to be enabled to handle
its own destinies as it sees fit. Sure of final military success,
he desired to increase within the nation the number of statesmen
capable of perpetuating indefinitely the life of a rejuvenated Turkey
and through painstaking efforts, through sharing gradually his own
responsibilities with members of the National Assembly he has created
a nucleus of statesmen enjoying the national confidence and capable
of commanding international esteem, who will be able to guide their
country along the road of progress.
“All the actions of Mustapha Kemal Pasha have been dictated by his
peerless patriotism, his genuine spirit of abnegation and his absolute
unselfishness.
“This modern Turkish Washington lives with his civilian and military
household in a little house near the station and opposite the building
of the National Assembly. This house, which is surrounded by a garden
with big trees and flowers, was originally the house of the station
master. It has eight or ten rooms, small and unpretentious, soberly
furnished throughout. The only luxury in the house is a writing-desk
almost as large as the room it occupies. At this table Mustapha Kemal
Pasha spends all his time when he is not at the front or on military
and administrative tours of inspection, or working at the National
Assembly. It is in this den that the General works from early in the
morning until late at night, without any distraction, continuously
and painstakingly striving to bring about his dream--not a dream of
personal ambition or of national conquests, but a dream of freedom and
of independence for a people--his people--whose one aim is to remain
master of its own home.
“The leader of Turkish women, Halidé Edib Hanoum, is in her own field
as great a figure as Mustapha Kemal Pasha. Her talents are most
diversified and she has, like Mustapha Kemal Pasha, a very strong will
for putting through anything she undertakes. Although she is still
young she has been for many years at the head of the movement for the
emancipation of Turkish women. You probably remember, as I do, that she
first attracted public attention when her verses were published. It
created quite a stir in Turkey as she was the first Turkish poetess,
at least the first who came out under her own name and bowed to the
public through her books. I still remember the first time I saw her,
in the good old pre-war days in the summer of 1913. I had gone with
some friends to the Sweet Waters of Asia on the Bosphorus which were
at that time the fashionable 'rendezvous' on Friday afternoons. The
little stream bordered with old trees and green meadows was crowded
with rowboats and caiks leisurely gliding on its transparent waters.
Suddenly among the boats I saw a slender skiff with two rowers wearing
embroidered Oriental liveries. At the stern a young girl was sitting,
her veil a little more transparent than it was usually worn at the
time and her dark brown locks showing a little more than those of her
sisters. She held a white embroidered parasol daintily in her hand
to shelter her from the strong rays of the summer sun. Her pensive
black eyes were beautiful. Her boat crossed ours and the vision had
disappeared in a few seconds. I held my breath and asked my companions
who she was, and when I heard that it was 'Halidé Hanoum, the poetess'
I was more impressed than ever. Little did I guess that the next time I
would see Her it would be here in Angora.
“Of course you know her career during these pre-war days and possibly
also during the war. She managed always to be a little ahead of
her sisters, the other Turkish women who were clamouring for the
emancipation of their sex. She was the first one who gradually and
almost imperceptibly lifted the veil of her contemporaries, she was the
first Turkish woman who engaged in newspaper polemics and addressed
public meetings. Even in those days she was a leader but she had not
yet come into her own. It took the national _épopée_ of Anatolia to bring
out in Her all the mature attributes of a really great woman, a leader
among leaders, a practical and rational woman of action even though
extremely advanced.
“She was, I think, the first woman to come to Angora. Communication
with Constantinople being then interrupted she had to cross in
carriage, on foot or on horseback the mountains of Anatolia. The
hardships she went through would make the subject of a long novel.
During nearly four weeks--the time it took her to reach Angora--not
once did she find a decent bed to rest in, and even her husband, Adnan
Bey, was exhausted when they arrived here. But it did not take her long
to recover and within a short time she was engaged body and soul in
organizing educational campaigns throughout Anatolia and in teaching
the peasant women all the different ways in which they could be useful
to their country.
“At the first vacancy in the National Assembly she became a candidate
and went personally before her constituency. She was, of course,
elected by an overwhelming majority and of course she distinguished
herself in her parliamentary work. In fact she criticised so well
the educational system then in vogue and offered such excellent
constructive suggestions that her colleagues of the National Assembly
elected her Secretary of Public Education in the Cabinet.
“She was successfully holding this position when the enemy started his
spring drive and the Commander-in-Chief issued a proclamation calling
under the colours all persons who could hold a gun. She immediately
took advantage of this to establish once more the equal rights of
women: on the plea that, being a huntress she not only could hold a gun
but also knew how to use it, she enrolled in the army and won the grade
of non-commissioned officer for bravery on the field, at the battle
of Sakaria. After the successful repulse of the enemy and when the
armies were disbanded for the winter she returned to Angora where she
is now completing and perfecting the organization of Turkish women for
educational, racial and hygienic betterment.
“Halidé Edib Hanoum lives in a little cottage, a farm, situated at
about one hour's ride from the village and which is reached through a
long, dusty road. Nestled within a bouquet of trees and at a short
distance from a clear little stream which sings its way through rocks
and flowers, stands the rustic cottage of Halidé Hanoum. It has a nice
little orchard and, further back behind the trees is a pasture where
she keeps a few cows. It is an ideal place for this loving and beloved
woman leader, for here she can withdraw--when she finds time from her
various occupations--and ride or hunt or else write, according to her
whim of the moment.
“The house is furnished scrupulously in Turkish style--the Turkish
style of villages: no rich embroideries and beautiful hangings, but
simple divans lined up against the whitewashed walls, one or two
carpets, and a copper 'brazero' in the living-room and of course books,
a large collection of books in every language--English, French and
German which she speaks remarkably well--and a few hunting guns.
“The last time I saw her she was returning from a ride on horseback
as I entered the gate. And I cannot say which of the two pictures is
most striking: that of a young girl in a rowboat on the Sweet Waters of
Asia, or that of a woman, slim and athletic, gracefully riding astride
a beautiful horse, her uncovered face proudly erect and her features,
now more mature, proclaiming the mind and the will of a leader!
“She asked me to tea, and in her simple little drawing-room we sat with
her husband and listened. She talked to us of her aspirations and
hopes--not social aspirations, to which all young and attractive women
are entitled, but the aspirations and hopes of seeing one day soon the
Turkish women, her sisters, recognised as the most progressive and
advanced women of the world and pointed out, even in foreign countries,
as the models of true womanhood.”