THE KEMALIST MOVEMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1921, Page 3

THE KEMALIST MOVEMENT.

INSPIRED BY A WOMAN. Rcval, April 10.—A powerful feminine mind is hack of the Turkish Nationalist movement, Halidi Edib Hanum is one of the most remarkable women wlm lias appeared in the Orient lor many centuries. Halidi Hanum i* the inspiration of tin Nationalist Government and bow much Mustaplja Kemal owes to her energy and enthusiasm it i> difficult to exaggerate. When tile British foimd that her patriotism in Constantinople was causing them trouble they sought to a ms; her, but she took refuge in Roberts College and was bidden there until an opportunity occurred to smuggle her across the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side, where it was easy lor her to make her way to Angora. POET AND POLITICIAN.

As n writer ol poetry ami novels she will go down to history as the .Madame de Kiael ot Turkey, as a politician and patriot-she will be reckoned with Rosalie Montinasson, the friend of tiispi. who made the campaign of lie Millc and accompanied him into exile and acted as tlie messenger between him and Mazzitli. In tlie Nationalist Government and ai in\ her influence is supreme and t here are lew questions on which she is not consulted. She is constantly with the army, rilling with he troops on long marches even into the Caucasus .Mountains. She wears man’s riding clothes and in the field only a veil over her hair, hut in the city in accordance with local prejudice she wears a light teliarchush. She is not as people think a djestne or Moslemised Jewess but was a Moslem. As soon as the Greeks landed at Smyrna in 1919 she raised tl e standard of protest in Constantinople. She received from the Sheih-ul-Islani permission to address the male population forbidden theretofore to women. She •I'ldressed a mob of 150.000 owl

the Mosque of Sultan Alnned 11. and so inspiring were her words that the mass fell on their knees and swore to fight the invader.

INSPIRE!! OE PAN-M.AM.ITKS. Halidi K.dib Hanum at the time of the armistice with Turkey founded the WiLonian Society in Constantinople and wished to head a deputation <4 women to the U.S.A. to insist on the territorial rights of Turkey being recognised. During the war she was : inspirer of Djemal Ra-lia and Djavut Rev. She nl-o wrote a famous hook called "Pan-Tttraninnism,” of which the hero was the infamous Talaat Pasha. When the Allies conquered (baza they found in tho trenches thousands of copies of this hook, which, was freely distributed to the Turkish .soldier,s. A fanatical Moslem. Halidi llatliim, made the journey to Syria with Djemal Pasha and organised the orphanages u bicli were neee-siiateil as a result the massacre of the Arabs by Djemah M.ueli will lie heard of Halidi Hanum in the future. She is certainly, in spite of her training in the American girl.-’ I school and as* a professoross at Roberts College, only a mild adaptation of western methods in the East, Previous t:

the war she was a strong propagandist for the greater liberty of women in the East. She has somewhat changed her opinions on this since the war, espe-

chilly owing to the helmvious of t'a Germans during their occupation ol Turkey. Site eonlessed herself that this hiiti caused the downfall ol Mosloin women to the extent Uf 90 pei cont.

As a loader of the Pan-Turanian ideas she would like to see not only the .Moslem world linked up together, but also till nationalities, which have Seljuk hlootl in their veins.