THE NEW REGIME

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1929, Page 7

THE NEW REGIME

TUITION IN TURKEY. (By Sir Porcival Phillips). ■CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 12. One night in August last—;t was the 10th, to bo exact—when tlu* people of Constantinople were seeking relief from the oppressive he.it ai opon-nir cafes along the water-f:out. Komal Pasha suddenly emerged Iron the Dolma Bagatelle Palace in hi: characteristically abrupt way, am motored to the Casino at Old Scrag lio Point. It was nearly 11 o’clock and that popular resort was erowdci with men and women of the miudh class. Tne Gliazi, who was accompanies as usual by several dejuities. sat (low at a table and listened to the singin< of a popular Arab “disueso” Iron, Cairo. During on e of her songs In wrote several sentences on a slip o paper and handed it to a man satin, near him. The I a tier stared in be wiklermcnt at the strange Roman characters and shook his head. Then Kemal Pasha, with one ui his whimsical smiles, handed the papoi to a deputy, who read the writing aloud in Turkish. The incident attracted general attention, and it. wn whispered through the audience that the President Was about to make one of his dramatic announcements. They were not disappointed. When the singer had finished, Kemal Pasha got up and addressed them. Ho told them that the words which one of their number had been unable to read were written in European letters. “You shall learn that alphabet," lie continued. “The old one is unsuited to us, just as the music you have heard is unsuited to our temperament. It is the mournful music of an oppressed people. We want mus e like that”—and he pointed to a bard in one corner which was waiting to pi ay popular Western airs and jazz. “Wo must advance,” lie added, “and bring ourselves to the level of European civilisation.” ***** The people wore astonished lmt not combative. They knew the Ghnzi meant what lie said and that opposition would lie futile. Docilely they watched the swift preparations lor their compulsory education. Kemal Pasha held little classes at Dolma Bagatelle Palace, and himself instructed groups of deputies in the new alphabet. These deputies in turn became the teachers of other .lopuiie--, so that within six weeks "200 were laboriously writing and memorising the European characters, with t-ho Ghazi, as headmaster, watching them at the blackboard. In November Parliament reassembled at Angora, and on tbo first day passed the alphabet law. It provided that from December 1 all newspapers and all public signs must be written in European letters. From January 1 all Government transactions and ordinary business transactions between private persons bad to be carried out in the same way.

“People’s Schools” for males and females between the ages of 10 an 1 -T1 were to he opened on Jan navy 1. Illiterates were to have four months’ instruction, and persons literate under the old alphabet two months. Everyone had to register in IPs district, and the police were ordered to see that those liable for instruction attended the local night classes. In the country districts schools wore organised by the various nmr.-h es of Elders. About the middle «J December the town drummers vet around like the old-time criers in England. heating their drums and calling on the people to “go and gel < duentod.” Final notices in Arabic Ircir.in:scent of the Income Tax inquisition at home) were left at all houses. The effect of this revolutionary cdb-t is amazing almost beyond belie!. >-«■ one would have believed that, an -n tire nation, however subject to tinwill of a dictator, would enter so v.iliinglv and wholeheartedly into a movement for the destruction of its ancient language and literature, for that *'ilbe the final result of this modernisation of the alphabet. All Turkey is absorbed by. it.

Tlx- people 'I vegan studying I' lo l,( ' w jiih! (lidiciill- characters long l»c-l* *"<? llieir instruction liecnnie compulsory. K,, r ilu. pest four months, just us wireless is one of the principal home amusements ol families in Great I»n! ■ ain, so “alphabet parties” have been the chief pre-occupation of the domestic circle in Turkish homes.

You see the bootblack at the street corner conning his letters between customers. Sometimes two or three of them will be together, reciting the alphabet to each other, while one painfully forms the characters. Doorkeepers sit at their post with a broadsheet, giving Clio new letters ard tbo old, pinned to the wall beside them. Groups of young girls and bey lerks spend the luncheon hour in nemorising four or five new lotto. •Ivon the “lmmals” (porters) by the lalatn bridge can lie seen tracing rude opies of their broadsheet with the tub of a pencil. There are impromptu classes on the erry steamers between Pora and laidar Pasha on the Asiatic side. In the evening, when the boats are Idl'd with city workers hound for their uhurhan homes, much of the converition is alphabetical. Some of these informal groups even indulge in ingl23-lo (e vbgkc vbgkxzfiflil friendly competitions of learning during the 20-minutes crossing. A famjj:i i' f i-m of salutation between rioiuls is: “Good evening. How nanv new letters do you know?” ****** It is a painful business. Officially, .lie new alphabet is supposed to be •asy of acquisition, but in reality the forks find the letters very peculiar ind very difficult. The ordinary Turk is not usually a person of brilliant intellect, However, they toil away at the alphabet in their waking . hours and at night they dream of it. “Eftciuli, 1 see armies and armies of letters marching across my bed when I try to sleep,” replied a Turk of middle age, an accountant by profession, when I asked him how he was getting on.