MEN OF THE CRISIS.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 December 1922, Page 4

MEN OF THE CRISIS.

L—ISMET PASHA. (By one who knows him). Lsmet Pasha, who met Sir Charles llarington in conference at Mudama. recentlv, is the most popular soldier in the Turkish Army. ( “lsmet Pasha will see you at once,’ once said to me a courteous staff officcr. “There, 1 hear his motor-car now.” A short, stout, little mail, Napoleonic in appearance—the stray grey hairs in his head indicated his age, 48—hopped

j quickly out of the open car, rail light- j 1 ly up the wide steps, nncl came bustling into the room. “Really, I am very glad to see you,’ he said in pure French. “It isn’t often we have visitors out here. Now suppose we go down to a hig gulden near by, and there you can tell me what is going on in the world, dust think! I haven’t been outside my country for many years—not since F was a student-officer in France.’ General Hmot Pasha talked volubly, t,, the utmost astonishment of his staff, who confided to me later that he ! rarclv talked to any one, though he was always cheery ' with his troops. “He must have taken a liking to you,”

was the only way they explained it. He told me that afternoon, in the cool of the garden, so many things that l begged him not to continue, as \ said laughingly, “You may regret it, and then ho obliged to arrest me to close the source of information.” Then he dropped into generalities. He said: “We Turks are determined to die for what we believe to be. our liberty. Many of us may perish, but in the end we will win for the fatherland. It may take us years, but win we shall.’’

Ho told mo it was very easy for him to take Constantinople. “Bpt what is the use?” lie asked. “It hasn’t any strategic value, it is a burden on the army holding it. We will get that city in the eud, by asking for it, without fighting.” After the old 'Turkish custom, before we separated, he ■made mo a present oi some beautiful pieces of earthenware. In exchange, noting that his plain drab uniform was without a belt, 1 took off a silver Cossack licit and asked him it he would wear it. “I shall, always,” lie said, and I could not doubt the genuineness of his reply.

!I.—FR ANK 1.1 X ROUFLLON. (Bv H. G. Cardoso). PARIS. M. Franklin Bouillon, who in the recent crisis proved himself to be one of ihc most successful unofficial diplomats

in Europe is a young and extremely businesslike Frenchman. He began life in Paris as a journalist, and as a member oi the Radical-Socialist Party was a close personal friend ami a follower of ,M. [!' iiuul who has '••■on seven times French Premier. Owing to his perfect knowledge ol ■ Fngiish, which lie speaks as an Eug--I:simian speaks it he lived for some years in England and the United States), he has been a prominent member of many Entente groups between Great Britain and Frame. • |is career as a deputy was a brief one, being, in fact, confined to one Parliament. Elected for the Department of Scine-et-Oise. he played a very i prominent part during the. war, largely owing to the great influence he has on the Left of the Chamber. Probably ibis was the season which prevented him from being re-elected, in November 1919, when what is often called the horcon blue election was held. When M. liriand, his friend and poli-

lical patron, once more assumed-power in 1921 and decided that the Angora Turks had become so strong that it would lie advisable for tho French not only to get out of the large tracts of Anatolia, which (hey had held since the armistice, but al-o to come to a peaceable agreement with this new and formidable Nationalist movement, he at once thought of Mr Franklin Bouillon as the only suitable envoy. The history of the success that M. Franklin Bouillon made of bis difficult mission is now well known. When lie returned to France M. Briand’s .Ministry fell and for some time it appeared as if the work which Franklin Bouillon had accomplished in Asia Minor was likelv to be lost sight of. M. Poincuire, the new Premier, was not favourable to M. Franklin Bouillon, Bui. the hitter never lost faith in bis star, and when tlie recent crisis arose be came at once to the fore. lit was the only man who could l.ave cci.vinced the Turks that peace was 1 ict(■:•■ than war, and by bis latest sueC'st at Angora lie lias marked out lor I himself a second and possibly i lore brilliant and lasting career in I onic polil ICS.

111. KEM At. PASHA. ! (Itv G. Ward Price). j CONSTANTINOPLE. “Mustaplia Kenial swears harder I tii’.i any officer in ihe Turkish Army, and the people he lias sworn at nio-t. I are the Germans.” One of Kemal’s oldest friends told me this the other ! (lay in explanation of his popularity, “Before the war,” lie said, “Kenial ' was ail infantry and general staff officer of no special prominence. He was one ol the little clique which engineered the movement of tlie Committee of .Union and Progress that overthrew Abdul Hamid, but while Enver, Niazi and the others climbed to high places after its success, be slipped back into obscurity: “It was what we call the Battle of Anafartn, immediately after the Allied landing at Suvla Bay, that laid the foundation of Kemal’s present fortunes. Liman von Sanders had ordered a Turkish corps to attack the British at once. The men had just arrived on the spot after a forced march, and their commander replied that they were too tired. “Next day when the danger of the British advance across the peninsula was greater, Mustn.pha Kenial. then a lieutenant-colonel, was put in command of two or three battalions, and ordered to.stop the British at all costs from reaching the crest which would have given them the domination ol Gallipoli. By prodigies of energetic leading on his part the advance was stopped, and Kenial was made a divisional general. “It was on that occasion,” said the Turkish officer, “that Kenial lmd one of his most violent rows with the Germans. A German machine-gun section was to have, been attached to him on the first day of the engagement, ft did not appear until the British attack was spent, for at Gallipoli the Germans were very careful not to expose themselves—indeed they only had seven killed during the whole Dardanelles campaign. When the officer in com-

mand of it did at last report to Rental, ho turned upon the German with a flood of unprintable abuse.” [Cental's health has not been good for- a long while, though it is bettei now than it was during the Dardanelles campaign. There he was depressed am Lie is a bachelor ot 41, of mo lest parentage, and he took his old mother, who is his only relative, to live at Antrora with him. . 1 ” As soon as he has won his aims and reinstalled Turkey m Constantinople, Thrace and Adrianople, said hm friend, “I am prepared to bet that Remai will get a doctor to certify that us health makes it imperative that he should retire from public life amigo to live at a foreign watering-place. ' gloomy.