Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-06
TURKEY PLANNING
SEVERAL REFORMS
Old Traditions Are Doomed
As Renal Announces
Changes.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
ANGORA, Turkey. January SIN the
| Turkey of Renal the bells of 1929 echo
the annual refrain, rang out the old,
ring in the new but this year there
| is a touch of swan song in the tune.
Renal knows and the bells know that
soon there will be nothing old left to
| ring out of this one-time quaint and
antique land which the iron fists of
the Ghazi have secured into such daz-
| cling newness. Next year the bells may
chime Ring out the new, ring in the
old"
Political Opposition Dead.
Over Turkeys 1929 there hangs no
| imminent cloud of political dissension
and there breaks no dawn of political
liberty The political opposition has
been thoroughly rung out Of the Tim
/ tied republics" one-man party, one
party government. KemapS only re-
manning formidable foe is himself How
long his iron constitution can stand
the strain of the hard living is an i'm
portant factor.
Outside the economic field, varied
and spectacular, it is rumored, are the
COIII1IlS
Ghazi has more reforms to launch.
This year, for sure, he is going to
scrap the traditional Moslem Sabbath
of Friday and order his Turks to pray
and rest, if pray and rest they must,
on the Occdent's Sunday. This year,
too. he is going to Christianize tradi-
tional Moslem ritual, scrap prayer rugs
and fill the spacious emptiness of
Turkeys mosques with pews and order
the Worshipers of Allah to keep their
shoes on.
1t is averred by many officials here
in the capital that this year he is 60
ing to put through legislation giving
women the vote and the hat. The
| women are as Solidly behind Renal as
| the army and it is reported that the
time has come when he would like to
see women not only voting but holding
seats in Parliament. He has laid mag
nificent foundations; he has shot off
countless skyrockets Of spectacular re-
forms, but for his creation to become
the rock of Gibraltar that he dreams
it remains for him to do lot of solid
economic cementing.
Economy Is Keynote.
Economic development will be the
main concern of the government dur
ing the coming year." promises Prime
Minister Ismet Pasha. The main points
in the program he outlines are an up
ward revision of the tariff which, by
terms of the treaty of Lausanne, expires
in August, 1929, the new tariff to be
heavily protectionist, in the hope that
Turkish industries will miraculously
come to birth; the sterilization of the
currency and the creation of state
bank, and a cure for the high cost of
living
Indications that the reformer Is tired
of waiting for the womenfolk to switch
from the veil to the hat or their own
accord is given by hes recent order to
all Turkeys Schoolmarms 10 turn up at
school in hats or not at all. This eXecu-
tive order presages blanket law sup
pressing the veil as peremptorily as was
suppressed the feZ.
Marriage is scheduled as another
| number in the 1929 show. Not the
Ghazis own-his intimates declare that
he will never remarry--but marriage
for Turkey at large. To cure the ma
TONS serious state of depopulat1on,
Renal wishes to see everybody but HIM
self married. A celibate tax is to be
levied. runs the rumor, on spinsterS as
we'll as bachelors. The total number
of women concerned in all of Turkey
is not known, but in Constantinople
some 10000 unbetrothed maidens and
10000 widows widows will also be
liable to the tax year after their be-
reavement) are bewailing a leap year
that passed too soon.
Education Is Planned.
But the most spectacular event OF
the coming year, by all odds, will be the
oF 4H1n uEnn
of $4,000, 900 persons in the great A B G
campaign. BY June every man, wom-
an and child. including the 1880, 600
who are at present blissfully ignorant Of
any A B C's, new or old, must be able
to produce a certificate signed by a
government examiner testifying to his
acquaintanceship with all the new sym
bols from A to z. What fate attends
the laggards and the morons, whether
it shall be fine, imprisonment or exile,
June will tell.