TURKEY TO-DAY

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1932, Page 8

TURKEY TO-DAY

ALSO EXPERIENCING depression

PARENTS AND MARRIAGES,

ISTANBUL, June 9,

Turkey, in common with the rest of the world, ,is suffering more, every day from tfhe trad e deplession. The crisis is especially felt' in the Smyrna district. With a poor crop 'selling, a:, low prices and the greater part of.tlv tobacco yield unsold—America, which is Turkey’s chief customer, has bought.; practically no tobacco ■ this season—producers and labourers alik e are poverty-stricken, and the poorer they oecome and the ’.ess they export the greater is the burden of taxation imposed upon them by a.benevolent Government.

Nothing is more indicative -of changing conditions of life in .fl’ie Smyrna district than the present 'attitude toward the business of getting married. Vhui trade flourished, giving and taking in marriage were the - occasion of prolonged festivities, ' continuing sometimes for three or four days. . Alt the /relatives on both sides gathered and acquaintances and dependents took the fullest advantage of the lavish hos-

pitality extended to them by the it rents of the bridal pair. By the time''the marriage ceremon’es ■ were completed, what with dowries and entertaining, the resources of the o’d folks were sadly depleted, but th“ mattered little, for money was erj y '•■nine, easy go. and V.fe was carefree. To-day very few parents are able ‘+ l marry off their children in the 0/ ■style. Are sons and daughters to await the return of better times which never seem to come ? They are too immtient, and in order to save their •parents’ faces young men adbuet the young women of their choice and a few days later repair secretly 'to the Town Hall and get married quietly with rtUe or no expense. lit is a bright solution and one Which will doubtless commend itself to Western parents whose lot to-day is just as hard and who are just as keen to avoid advertising their troubles .as their Eastern brethren.