The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-06
CAPITAL Of TURKEY
NOT UPSET
PRESIDENT OF ROBERT COLLEGE
WRITES INTERESTING LET
TER ABOUT THE WAR.

about COnStantinople, and conditions
resulting from the Balkan war, are in
terestingly described in a letter aa-
dressed to the Associated Press BY DR..
Caleb f. Gates, president of Robert
college at the Turkish capital:
The letter follows:
This has been a war of surprises to
most people. The Turks themselves
were amYng those most surprised.
They had expended some e42.0o0, 600
upon their army. They supposed
whatever else they had done they had
at least prepared an army, but that
army has failed them.
The principal reason seems to be
lack of organization. The officers of
the army Were not in touch with their
men. The committee Of union and
progress had gotten rid Of the old Of
~ficers, who had risen from the ranks
and who knew their men, and substi-
tuted officers trained in the military
schools of Turkey and Europe, I'm
fortunately these officers have been
devoting too much time to politics and
too little time to their work with the
army. So they did not adequately
know their men.
Turkey, at the opening of the war,
strained every nerve to bring their
soldiers to. the front. They came in
by ships which passed down the Bos-
phorus every day, the soldiers cheering
and the bands playing. The soldiers
We're put in cars and sent to the front,
often without their officers. When
they arrived at the station where they
were to leave the railroad, officers
We're in waiting, who took them and
placed them in their companies, All
corp and division formation was lost.
1t was confusion. These soldiers went
to the battle under bad conditions.
They needed a month at least to train
with their new officers and get to
know one another and their leaders.
Commissariat Fails.
Then the commissariat failed. 1t
soon became evident to us here in Con-
stantinople that the governments was
bringing in men much faster than
food. They gave money to The soldiers
and told them to go n buy food for
themselves, but often they could not
find food to buy, and many Of the SOL
diers were suffering from hunger be-
fore they saw a battle or heard a gun,
When fighting actually began all their
,.rr. -.
difficulties We're increased.
Under these conditions the Turkish
army ought never to have advanced
beyond the line of Lule Bureas. They
should have taken up strong positions
there; waited to get all their army to-
gether: trained their men and put
them into sympathy With their Of
~ficers.
BY this time all the world knows
ln'' ,he pu,S"i az army uio lo' puf~
u ! - "9 osSo'u i-"l' "'S"S
49, Nalte0 1leS'i,S q WIN ue'oie Ivy
~ o''1'i%''' 70 Try ''e
- 'r' .'t'N "' ''f"7
h,tt1a thoro ana ,,o,,- ,,oaaa ,naatia
tons are going on. The Turk is not
driven out of Europe, nor do I believe
that he will be now. ConstantinOple
will remain under the Turkish govern
ment, and a strip Of territory the size
of which will be determined by nego-
tiations.
While the spa have been
filled with accounts of the condition Of
C~onstantinople, filled with refugees
and soldiers driven back upon the
city, and while they have been de-
scribing scenes here only ~rfvalled by
the scenes in Dante's Inferno" we
have been living in ConStantinopln in
peace in quietness. There has been no
bloodshed here, and the government
has maintained order with great firm
ness. We should remember that
kiamil Pasha's government took up
the work after the committee of union
and progress cabinet had been turned
out, oon after the beginning of the
war. The least that we can say about
the committee Of union and progress is
that its name is a misnomer, for the
committee stood neither for union nor
for grogross.
A Hard Task.
Eiaui1 p,sho,. m
tack Tba,, inhar;+a5 ~ " 1'
,uos ..h,+ ~ ao,.z,
nrogros. Ma n,o1a - an1 = -
,y,s en-, ,,i.h .ha3 ~
ficn rborn h,s 10,
order in Tho ni4,. G,,ion ~ D,
pohort ao11nuo 10. va. - ~
of lassons Nh ,rao+as+ 5araa. wy