Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-05-20

the account of it as short and to the
point as possible"
For about fifteen minutes The As
ISOLATED correspondent gave a sort OF
private lecture on the operation OF the
Allies. Now and then His Majesty
would put a question. What had been
the conduct of his soldiers on the vari-
Gus days; had the populations OF
Tchanak kale and Kilid Bahr suffered
much; what had been the effect of the
terrific noise upon the mind of the cor
respondent-had he been afraid?
These were some of the things that
interested the sultan very much.
81 am convinced that the Dardanelles
can not be forced said His Majesty
when the story of the Dardanelles
bombardment had been told. The
brave conduct of our troops in the re-
cent operations against the strait per-
nit me to conclude that, though the
Allies bend every effort and employ
every means at their disposal, they Will
be unable to achieve their purpose"
His Majesty then asked Mr.. Swing
what his impression of the lombard
ment had been. Mr.. Swing related
how while going through the streets OF
Tchanak Kale on March 18th he had
been most unpleasantly impressed by
the detonation of the exploding shells
-15-inch affairs from the Queen E1iz-
abeth." He had been unable to control
his nerves, said Mr.. Swing, and each
time a. shell had exploded he had felt
the uncomfortable desire to stoop. An
old Turk had seen this and had come
beside him to give comfort accompany
ing gentle pats on the shoulder with
the worlds: 'Yock, yock-Kismet."
That a Turk had in such an hour of
stress found time to comfort another
seemed to please His Majesty greatly.
To ONE words to that effect the sultan
added:
But the man did not apply the
proper word, my young friend. We
use the word kisTnet only in relation
to the smaller events in life. If you
were eating an orange and one half of
it should fall to the ground just when
you were about to put it into your
mouth that would be an occasion for
the use of the word kismet. But in
matters of life and death it is more
appropriate to use the word 'kadeT.
That word expresses exactly what the
old man wanted to convey. 1t means
that our fate is in the hands of a SUI
perior force and that what is to hap
pen will happen, no matter what we
ourselves may do. The idea is known
among you as FataHsm, l believe. 1t
is a very good one because confidence
in the Supreme and resignation to our
fate mean a great deal in life For
merly we Turks believed in it altogeth-
er. But We have come to realize that a
belief in kader alone will not do. We
must WOfk.
His Majesty then asked for some adj
ditionaI details on the sinking of the
French ship "Bouvet" and the British
ship Irresistible" That the former
had gone down within three minutes
brought an expression of sorrow to the
kindly face of the old man, as if he
regretted that so many human beings,
nearly 500, had persisted without the
slightest chance to fight for life. There
was another reference to the conduct
of the Turkish soldiers in the coast de-
tense service.
ut has been said that there was a
strong factor of luck in our victory of
March 18th which made it so complete
and great" said His Majesty. But we
have saying in Turkish which runs:
Luck is infatuated with the effic-
cient."
The translation Of what His Majesty
said next may have been a little faulty
Either that or irony was intended. 1t
was this: His Majesty says that he
finds it very unjust that the Allies
want to force the Dardanelles and take
Constantinople just to import food
stuffs from Russia" Then His Males
ty continued: But our troops have
shown their ability and willingness to
do their duty. I am speaking here not
alone of the Turkish defenders of the
Dardanelles but also of those Germans