ANZAC RECALLED

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1933, Page 6

ANZAC RECALLED

HIGH PRAISE FOR KEMAL PASHA

MELBOURNE, November 11

Discussing the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic, being celebrated this month, General Sir Harry Chauvel paid a tribute to the personal work of its first and present Gazi Mustapha Kemal P.asha ; for whom he confessed the greatest admiration as a soldier statesman and reformer .

“It is one of. the regrets of my life,” said Sir Harry, “that I never met him personally. Actually, I just missed the opportunity at Aleppo in 191 S, when he surrendered to the British Forces.

“The story of Mustapha Kemal’s part in holding up the Australian and New Zealand Landing at Anzac in April, 1915, and his great work at Suvla is August 1915, where he stopped the advance of the British 9th Corps, is well known through the accounts since published in the official histories of the campaign.

“But we had ample evidence of his iniluence and popularity much earlier, in the campaign in Sinai. “I heard of him first in January, 1917, when a Turkish camel patr 0 l was captured near Rafa. The officer in command, who spoke good English, told us that most of the younger Turkish officers believed that M,ustapha was the only real leader the Trukish Army bad, and that owing to his part in the Gallipoli campaign he had become the-idol of the Turkish Army. “He added, however, that there was much jealousy of his prestige, asd that Kemal was not getting the opportunities he deserved.

“Later in the campaign we learnt that he had been sent to the Caucasus and Bagdad, hut towards the end news came "that he had been appointed to the command of the 7th Turkish Army Corps in Palestine, but then it was, of course, too late for his presence to be felt.”