“STEP TOWARD PEACE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 6

“STEP TOWARD PEACE”

TURK DISCUSSES NAVAL DISARMAMENT SITUATION IN TURKEY "The Naval Disarmament Conference in London is one of the finest steps toward peace that has ever been made, because it seems to me that it will bring the nations closer together." Life is full of surprises, and Kara Ashlan Pasha, the Turkish wrestler, is one of the biggest. Although he loves wrestling, he does not care to talk about it. Rather would he discuss world politics and scientific research, although he says he does not know a great deal about them, but desires to converse that he may learn from other people. “Of course there have been many discussions in America and elsewhere about the scrapping of battleships, but it will mean that taxation will be reduced arid, in addition, it will keep imperialistic Ideas away from the people and the Governments,” said Pasha, continuing his discussion of the recent conference. “The reason for Germany being so Imperialistic before the war was because she was preparing for that purpose. Like a bulldog kept on a chain and fed every day until come day it will bite you, battleships and munitions which are kept are bound to explode, and a nation regardless of its friendship at the time, is bound to use its power some day'. “SAFER PLACE” “Since three of the largest nations in the world, England, America and Japan, have agreed on naval disarmament, the world should be a safer place in which to live. That is my* belief.” Pasha can talk very interestingly on the subject of the emancipation of Turkey. “Kcmal Pasha, President of Turkey, who is a very conservative man, has been working for tho people, the betterment of the country and the westernisation of the whole nation,” he said “I regard the modernising of Turkey as. a very progressive step. Before the world war 90 per cent. of the Turkish people were not educated and did not know there was a world outside their own. They were led by a few heads such as the Sultan, but since his deposition the country has been getting close to European ideas.. and the people are more friendly to Europeans than before. The relationship between Christianity and Mohammedanism was always a stumbling block, the people being guided by their religion, but as they have learned more and become more civilised religion has lost- much of its power. The abolition of veils and the fez and the wearing of European clothes has also done much to help.” Scientific research interests him greatly and he can relate various experiments which he has seen in the Rockefeller Institute, including one feat of keeping the heart of a chicken beating continuously for 17 years. The doctor who is conducting these experiments, say's Pasha, believes that soon death will be a thing of the past. Pasha was educated ac high schools in Turkey and America before going to the university where he studied as a medical student. While the war was on he had to leave his studies to earn money to help his people in Turkey, but his mother and sisters died. The only way he could earn enough money to help his people was by wrestling, his favourite spcrt. and he has kept on ever since.