THE GOLDEN ALPHABET

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 19

THE GOLDEN ALPHABET

GIFT TO GAZI As a mark of gratitude for the Turkish script reform, the Great Natioual Assembly has offered the Gazi a remarkable piece of locai craftsmanship. it is a silver board, in which are inlaid in gold the letters composing the new alphabet. Its finely wrought frame is of massive gold. Over a million citizens of both sexes, aged between sixteen and forty, have been trained in the national evening schools to use the new characters. It is hoped that illiteracy will be completely removed in from ten to twelve years. For the present the use ol the Latin letters is limited to official and commercial correspondence. Private letters continue to be written in the old script. But many a man of humble condition, to whom the art of writing formerly seemed ail almost unattainable achievement, can now be seen tracing lines in coarse but readable Latin letters. The proportion of illiterates before the reform exceeded DO per cent. Though a great number of new elementary schools have been created, only 400,000 children out of 1,300,0u0 are able to go to school, 53 per cent, from urban and only 16 per cent, from rural districts. .