Evening star., 1937-09-29
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY MARGARET CERMOND.
KEMAL ArATURK. BY Hams Froemt

KEMAL ATATURK. BY Hams Froemb-
gen. New York: Hillman-Curl, Inc.
Emerging from the Great War with an
unassailable though practically un-
heralded record of heroic conduct on the
battle 'front.' Mustafa Kemal became a
notable figure in world affairs chiefly as
another bad man who seemed to be
determined to keep Turkey in the lime
light as Europe's incurable trouble
maker. Unfortunately for the peace
making politicians and the world at
| large, too little was known about the
/ Grey Wolf Of Anatola. Had intelligent
understanding of men and their prin-
ciples, rather than eagerness for po-
| litical advantages, been the dominant
note In the postwar negotiations for
| partitioning Germanized states and the
allies of the central powers, much valu-
| able time and great deal of futile
pickering might have been saved, and
perhaps the blood of countless thou
sands of victims Of revolt would not have
drenched the soil of Western Asia and
Eastern Europe. But 1t required ten
years and more for the worlds most
| renowned statesmen to learn that there
was no room in the vocabulary of Mus
| tafa KemaT for the word compromise"
| and that there could be no peace in the
| Near East until the forces of dishonesty
and corruption were wiped out of the
Ottoman Empire.
| 1t was perhaps only natural that de-
mands for the dissolution Of Turkey
| would be readily agreed to by the peace
! politicians. For the better part of four
| centuries the Ottoman Empire had been
| at war. Arrogant, profigate sultans had
| bartered with England and France for
| money to keep themselves in luxury and
| to finance almost continuous warfare
Europe had been perpetually in dread
OF formidable OutburSt of hatredS and
| passions involving the empire and its
neighbOring states. Turkey had been
designated for decades as the "sick man
of Europe" and there was little reason to
believe that SO hopelessly sick a patient
could be cured. Readjustments of terri
tory in the peace agreements following
the Great War afforded an opportunity
to rid Europe of this incurable invalid,
and the partition of Turkey was calmly
accepted to be matter of comparatively
uncontested routine. They reckoned
without full comprehension of the fact
that Mustafa. son Of Ali and Zubeide
Ria, had other plans
X
Ali Ria. could he have lived until
today, would have been proud in the
knowledge that his son merited the faith
OF father who believed that the Turks.
under wise leadership, could retrieve
their lost honor and that it was not yet
too late to save from utter extinction a
nation sunk in corruption. Ali Ria WAS
an honest Turk who resigned his posi-
tion as Imperial Ottoman Customs off,
Ger and turned to farming rather than
close his eyes and grow rich through
the methods of graft and dishonesty
upon which official and sem-official
Turkey thriyed in the latter part of the
nineteenth century. He knew that in
his own day Turkey could not be re-
stored to honor in the society of ma
tions. But perhaps in Mustafas span
the tide would turn. He therefore de-
termined that his son would receive the
best that modern progressive nations
had to offer in educational advance
ment. Mustafa should be ready when
the time came. He could not know that
the assassination of an archduke at
SerajevO in the early Summer of 1914
would set the world aflame and that
out of the holocaust Mustafa would
How much of his fathers conception
of redeemed nation Mustafa absorbed
is not indicated in this story of the
Ghazi's career, but whether by associa-
tion with modern European customs or
by inheritance his racial and national
pride were aroused is not of material
Importance. From childhood he was
something of a lone wolf. Education in
Germany introduced him to modern
ideals OF government and of national
honor and racial pride. History, par
ticularly that Of his own people, became
a matter OF paramount interest He
learned how in past centuries mighty
sultans led their hordes out of Central
Asia to conquer Arabia, Syria, Egypt and
Tripoli. entering Asia Minor and even
tually crossing the Dardanelles and en-
tering Europe. He learned how his race
had reached its lowest ebb through mix
ture with the MacedOnians Arabs, Jews
and Greeks who overran the land until
the Tartars had practically lost their
own characteristic features of physiog-
nomy. And this sorry story of the de-
generation his once valiant race in
stllled in the proud Ahatolian the
desire to work for its regeneration and
to re-establish his native land and to
win for it the respect of the world.
International statesmen and politi-
clans, writing pacts at Paris, Lausanne
and Sevres, were not unaware of the
courageous character of the hero OF
Gallipoli or of his popularity with the
masses Of his own people. They were
also aware of the various schemes put
into effect by official Turkey during and
after the war to get rid of the man
and put an end to his activities as
revolutionist. Their behavior toward
Turkish representatives at treaty con-
ferences is perhaps excusable on the
ground that 1t was incredible that Tur-
key could produce a man who sought
nothing buts justice for his people and
honor for his country. On the other
hand, it is inconceivable, in the light of
later developments, that anything except
political jealousies and territorial adj
vantages stood in the way of even polite
reception and consideration Of the de-
mands of Mustafa Kemal for free
Turkey for Turks.
1t is not difficult to recall today how
impatient the outside world became with
the stubbornness of Kemals representa-
tives in treaty negotiations and how
prejudice and mistrust prevailed in the
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