The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-08-13
TURKS PLANNING
TO RECAPTURE
CONSTANTINOPLE
Associated Press Correspondent
Gives Insight Into the Present
Conditions

Angcra, Asia Minor. July 11.-By
Mail. )-The Kemalist government.
with the aid of its army, isMetermin-
ed to solve the Near observation-disclosures
itself; a fact to which the AHed vast
ern powers are said to he Hind.
This is the chief impression when
The Associated Press correspondent
received after a trip of hundreds of
miles by sea and land from ece.e, be-
fuddled Constantinople to the Clear
atmosphere of this little city Situated
on wide plateau, where the Nation
alists have pitched their fpolitical
tents.
The stranger. putting hiss foot on
the soil of Nationalist Anatdlia feels
new air. 1t is rot privilege ex-
tended to all and sundry; tut once
good faith has been established. the
doors of primitive hospitality are
opened wide. and the stranget may do
what he will or go where he pleases.
Revisiting the interior after two
years. when the Nationalist govern
ment had just received its BAPTISM by
the declaration of rights of the Turk
ish people at Sivas. the correspon-
dent found the same gray, belowered,
treeless distance, the same toiling
peasants. the same dull villages and
Owns. But the aid is charged with
new purpose. 4
The correspondent saw Malstapha
Kemal Pasha, Halide Hanum, Ahe wo-
man Nationalist leader, and other per-
sonalities with whom he talked at
length two years ago. Today, they
make the same declarations al then;
they are fighting for their homeland
and for national existence; they will
have nothing more and nothing less.
They are also close studeAts of
American history; they compase their
war to Americas struggle fcssinde-
pendence. What boots poverty or
ill-clad soldiery, if the heart he right
and the cause be just?' they ask.
The correspondent put the question
bluntly to Mustapha Kcmal. to Yussuf
Bey, his minister for foreign affairs
and to other leaders: Are You not
unsportsmanlikc to organize your
selves for the purpose Of beating
just peace after you were whipped IN
the great war;
Inc answer came. NO. we nav g
given up Syria ard Mesopotamia. We
have left these former Ottoman coun-
tries to their own destinies. What
further penalty should we pay for our
defeat?'
1t is the intention of the Nationalist
Turks to live or die on the issue of
rational independence and the integ-
rity of the soil inhabited by Turks
with no interference from foreigners
AS re1iards Boishevism. it is appar-
ent that the Turks are securing arms
and a certain amount of assistance
from that direction; yet they are as
afraid of Bolshevik contact as western
Europe is The Turks do not desire
any political foreign control from any
The intention is to drive out the
Greeks and then to retake CONSTANT
nop!e, make it their commercial CAPT
tai and begin rebuilding Turkey on
the basis of good roads, education and
export trade.
Today they are refusing to issue
Nationalist paper money, for fear Of
debasing the old currency.
The Turks declare that the Nation
alist movement, which has historically
been going on for half a century but
has been mothered by the greed of the
sultans and pashas is destined to live.