The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1921-10-19
Leader of Turk
ish Nationalists
Discusses the Eastern Ques-
ton with Press Cores
ponden

Headquarters Nationalist Turkish
Army, July 20.-Mustapha Ismet
Pasha, the brilliant chief Of the
Turkish forces on whose patience
and vile deepnds much Of the sue
cess or failure OF the Nationalists,
was trained in the hard school Of
frontier fighting with Arabs, Kurds,
Russians and British, during the
great war. especially at the Dar-
danelles where he was chief Of staff
He is given more to action than to
words
Rather deaf, hearing with diff
Guilty only in his left ear, he isn't
given to making conversation.
Throughout the army, to the last
soldier, his deafness is known and
when he speaks to soldiers in the
ranks, as he often does, they shout
out their answers.
However, with the Greek often
sive in full swing, Ismet Pasha in
vited the correspondent to stay and
go about with him. Il want to
talk to you because we Turks rarely
present our side Of the case" he
said. LAS an American, you are at
least neutral if not friendly" SO
riding in his automobile among the
troops, or lunching or dining with
him or over his desk, the inter
view ran over many hours, from
one day to another.
I'VE are lonely out here in our
mountains, cut off from the world,
and we want to know what the
world is thinking about" he ex-
planned
"4All we know is that we are
obliged 20 win the war. We are
fighting for all we have. Our cause
is just. We are in the position Of
the French during the great war.
We didn't expect 20 renew the war
after the armistice No one should
accept war except as an inevitable
necessity. Certainly the Greeks
were not in this necessity.
This war has been brought on
by white -collared diplomats. 1t is
often said that we soldiers are cruel
and surely we are, but wars are
made by cynical-minded or stupid
diplomats far more cruel than We.
"JYhy should Greek peasants be
sent to our land to massacre and
murder and burn Surely this peas
ant doesn't wish to dc this. All
he knows is that he is fighting for
King Constantine. The king fiat
ters himself that he has military
talent. But he Will lose the war,
and also his throne when his people
understand how unjust is the war.
The king thought the war would
be promenade like the one he
made in Switzerland and" exclaim-
ed the vivacious little general, his
black eyes sparkling. But he won't.
Military logic is against him.
THE Greeks are coming with lots
of material. These will be ours in
time. Say the Greeks have now
10000 effective combat men. We
have as much and we have the men
to keep on increasing our army as
we capture Greek material to out
fit them. Whereas the Greeks can
never be stronger numerically. They
have drawn their last troops, taking
boys Of eighteen.
"At the arnlistice. we disbanded
an army Of 100000 men. We can
get them again, though now we are
taking only picked men,"
Asked if he had any Germans or
Russians in his forces, he said: "Of
course not. Have you seen any
We don't need them.
Without faith, the best prepar-
ed war may be lost. We have that.
We know our cause is just. Our
soldiers may not be spick and span,
to European eyes they may look lily
equipped, but their hearts are right
and they know how to fight. They
will fight until told the war is over
and won. 1t may take ten years,
but we are preparing for that.
"At the end Of the great war, the
Allies thought to cruelty US. using
the Greeks and Arn1enians to drive
in the nails. We gave up our arms
and our cannon But with an irreg-
ular army we have slowly restored
the parts of our cannon, manufac-
tured the breech pieces, removed by
Tho Pritich We have o1So cantIroG
/ Greek material, likewise arms and
cannon sent by the British to Ar
menia, and we have secured British
supplies sent to Denikene.
There's no military reason why
we shouldn't retake Constantinople
But we must first get rid Of the
| Greeks on this front"