“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 Governmentand 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 surelyhave 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 hesitationon 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 confidencecould 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—sortof 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 Assemblyis 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, hisgenuine 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 headof 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 nationalépopéeof 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 ashort 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.”
Little can be added to this picture given by Djemil Haidar Bey on the life in the Nationalist capital and the organization of New Turkey. Since his letter was written events have proved that he had in no way exaggerated the efficient work and the patriotism of the Turks in Anatolia. They have succeeded in accomplishing the impossible. Their countrymen all over the Old Ottoman Empire as well as in the confines of Asia share fully their joy as they had shared their sorrows and pains. We are all proud of the unequalled accomplishments of our people and we firmly believe, no matter what the immediate future has in store for us of further struggles and further sufferings—no matter how vicious a propaganda our enemies may have recourse to so as to minimize the effect and results of our victories—that New Turkey, a rejuvenated nation which has given such patent proofs of its unconquerable spirit of self-sacrifice and indomitable will to live, a people which, despite the most insurmountable obstacles thrown in its way by unfair enemies, hassucceeded in emancipating itself from all political, economic, religious and personal prejudices—will shatter completely its material and moral chains and continue its advance—free and independent—on the road to culture, progress and civilization.