The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-08-24
TURKISH LEADER
GIVES His SIDE
OF WAR PROBLEM
Declares Turks Are Fighting
Greeks for Just Cause and
Simply Must Win

Headquarters Nationalist Turkish
Army, Aug. 24.-Mustapha lsmet
Pasha, the brilliant chief of the Turk
ish forces on whose patience and vile
depends much, OF the success or fail
ure of the Nationalists, was trained
in the hard school of frontier fighting
with Arabs, Kurda, Russians and
British, during the great war. especi.
ally at the Dardancles where he was
chief of staff. He is given more to
action than to words.
Rather deaf hearing with difficulty
only in his left ear. he isn't given to
making conversation. Throughout
the army. to the last soldier. his deaf
ness is known and when he speaks
to soldiers in the ranks, as he does
often. they shout out their answers.
However. with the Greek offensive
in full swing, Ismpt Pasha invited the
correspondent to stay and go about
with him. 81 want to talk to you be
cause we Turks rarely present our
side of the case" he said. AS an
American, you are at least neutral if
not friendly" So, riding in his auto
mobile among the troops. or Iunchng
and dining with him, or over his desk,
the interview 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 explained
"All we know is that We are obliged
to win the war We are fighting for
all we have. Our cause is just We
are in the position of the French dur
ing the great war. We didn't expect
to 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
"Why should Greek peasants be
/ sent to our land to massacre and muir
der and burn? Surely this peasant
doesn't wish to do this All he knows
is that he is fighting for King Con.
! stantine. The king flatters himself
/ that he has military talent But he
will lose the war, and also his throne
when his people understand how I'M
! just is the war.
/ The king thought the war would
| be a promenade like the one he made
in Switzerland, and" exclaimed the
vivacious little general, his black eyes
| sparkling. But be won't. Military
| logic is against him.
1.-The Greeks are coming with lots
of material. These will be ours in
time. Say the, Greeks nave now S0,-
600 effective combat men. We have as
much and we have the men to keep
on increasing our army as we capture
Greek material to outfit them. Where
as the Greeks can never be stronger
numerically. They have drawn their
! last troops, taking boys of eighteen.
AT the armistice, we disbanded an
army of 100000 men. We can get
them again, though now we are TAX
ing 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 prepared
war may be lost. We have that. We
know our cause is just. Our soldiers
may not be spick and span, to Euro
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 pre-
pairing for that.
AT the end of the great war, the
allies thought to cruelty us, using the
Greeks and Armenians to drive in the
nails We gave, up our arms and our
cannon. But with an irregular army
we have slowly restored the parts to
our cannon, manufactured the breech
pieces, removed by the British. We
have also captured Greek material, !
likewise arms and cannon sent by
the British to Armenia. and we have
secured British supplies sent to Den
nikine.
There S no military reason why we
shouldn't retake Constantinople But |