Evening star., 1922-09-28

a barrier to po1ticei pr military prefer;
ment. Often sultan has stopped
mantle Of his own iimitiess power to
soldier. janissary. 'slipper-bearer. pipe
wailah, eunuck, or renegade, asking
Of him only one thing--success!
absolute equality within the
faith!" Is the dogma of Islam, and as
such that of Turkey. In a manner IT
England. But in Turkey the reality
Of 1t is more salient and. being
wonderful attraction to the picked
men of inferior races who In Amer
lea and In England would be barred
from high service through social or
racial prejudice. it has provided the
caliphs of the Ottoman clan with an
endless supply of men of genius and
ability. The history Of the grand
viziers and the great pashas of Tur-
key is the history of men who. un-
hampered by the obstacles of birth.
risen by sheer force OF ability-in
war and in peace.
Take, again, Mustapha Kemal
Born In the slums.
He is not even of Osmanli blood.
Born and bred in some humble quar-
ter Of 'Constantinople, almost in the
slums. he joins the army as young
ster. He works steadily. persist
emily. rises by sheer force of ability
to a captaincy in the infantry. trans
fers to the artillery. then to the staff.
He uses a years furlough to study
at the Turkish War College. passes a
brilliant examination and is sent to
ripDq-Srhn1a
Balkan war sees him a major. Turk
ish defeat and peace finds him q
slightly embittered. slightly disap-
pointed man. on the point of quitting
his chosen vocation. But he is
patriot He rceonsiders. He studies
generals: Caesar, Tamerlane. Gusta-,
vus Adolphus of Sweden. Napoleon.
Moitke. Grant and Lee. At the out
break of the world war he is frankly
pro-ally. But Turkey declares for
he .obeys orders. He fights for his
country. He is in command at Gal
lipoli and VIGOROUSLY repels the Brit
ish troops there. sending them back
helter-skelter to their ships. 1t
seems that he is the man Of the hour.
bering his former pro-ally leanings.
becomes nervous. fears that his mill
tary success might make of him an
important political factor and induces
Enver Pasha, the commander-in-c chief,
to send him to Anatolia in an unim-
portant training position as a major
general.
He Obeys Orders.
He does not complaint: does not try
to pull wires in Constantinople. He
fn
trains soldiers. With great care,
with tact and kindliness. yet with
steely discipline. he fashions an army
out of bearded. gray-haired peasants
and their beardless. sixteen-year-old
grandsons and sends them into bat
tie to capture Gen. Townsend and
his ten thousand at Kut- t-el-Amara. to
keep Great Britain's subsequent ad-
vance at bay for many weary months.
to delay the British conquest of Pal
estine until his army had no NUM-
tions left. no aVplanes. no medicine.
not as much as a spare bandage or a
pair of shoes. while all the world was
pouring supplies into the British war
Golfers.
Came defeat. peace, hopelessne ess !;
despair; and all Europe Hopping about
the mutilated Ottoman corpse like
vultures to the reek of carrion.
The Sick Man Of Europe was dead.
There was no doubt of it. The un-
speakable Turk had spoken his last
word. Very soon the Greeks would
celebrate high mass in the mosque of
Santa Sophia of Constantinople.
kyrie Eleison!
A Cloud on Horizon.
Then. almost overnight, a cloud on
the near eastern horizon. no bigger
than hands breadth: faint rumor:
thin. anaemic trickling of news out
of Asia Minor; a name mentioned by
occasional. globe-trotting newspaper
correspondents.
Mustapha kemal Pasha. 1t seemed
that he was a patriot. 1t seemed tha t
he was speaking Of defying Greece
and Greece's British hackers. It
seemed that he mentioned war and a
determination to carry on and sue
ceed.
And the world laughed. 1t was a
delicious. international jest. It was
And how was he going to fight, since
he had no army. no money. no muni-
tions, no ships?
The world forgot that he had three
qualities-an iron will to succeed. a
sremendous and nc ,s SCI, cleanliness of purpose,
that he had yet fourth quality
an overwhelming. orthodox, almost
childlike faith in his God!
Bitterness I'm Soul.
Too, there was in his soul a certain
bitterness to sharpen and poison the
dagger Of his resolution. Let us put
it in his own words; words which he
used at that time 70 on E,,ru,L
friend Of his:
"You have never had a decent word
for Turkey. You have always lied
about US, and believed your own lies.
Let me, point out Just one instance:
The Young Turk revolution, when we
progressives pulled Abdul Hamid' s
teeth. You. the apostles of freedom
and constitutional government and
half dozen other assorted fetishes.
allowed Austria, your trusted steward
Of other peoples property since the
Berlin congress OF thieves. to steal
this property, belonging to. Turkey,
the fertile provinces Of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. You looked on calmly
nexed Turkish territory in time of
peace. You passed resolutions, full
of blatant hyprocrisies and lies, but
you never raised a finger in our be-
half. in behalf Of that Justice and
humanity which you proudly claim as
endeavors to establish an Independent
and constitutionally governed Ru-
mania. a free Serbia, modern Greece
and Bulgaria, and, more recently, an
autonomous Macedonia, under the
pretext that Turkey, being controlled
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