Atatürk, Kemal, 1881-1938; Turkey -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Politics and government -- 1918-1960
Again and again I try to assure them that our policy in Turkey is going
to “come right.” When they politely retorted that we “did not seem in
any great hurry to start turning,” I could only suggest that “Empires,
like whales, could not quickly change their direction.”
Younous Nadi Bey is a most interesting talker. Like so many of the
Nationalists, he “comes from” Malta; like them all, he loves his country
sincerely, and is eager to protect her. Can we expect these men to trust
the Power that, only three months ago, was doing its best to destroy
them? For myself, I could only hope that we should soon give them sound
reason to change their opinions.
I afterwards paid a visit to Younous Nadi at the offices of the _Yeni
Gun_. After coffee in his primitive “editorial sanctum,” I was shown
over all the “works.”
The illustrations are prepared with a hand machine, which reminded me of
our school magazine activities; but the “results” are, if anything,
rather better than our own “dailies” achieve.
The operator had built his bed over the solitary press, in part, no
doubt, to save time, but possibly also with the idea of protecting his
“treasure.” The editor apologised for the lack of all our modern
processes of production. I was the more inclined to compliment him upon
his conquest of difficulties.
It is surely a _tour de force_ to “get the news” from this Anatolian
machinery, and there are sixty papers in Anatolia!
* * * * *
We were staying in the Hadji Baïram quarter of Angora, so called from
the mosque and turbé erected in memory of that sainted man. My host’s
house stands on the edge of a hillock, exposed on all sides to the rain
or wind or snow. No carriage can drive up to the doors, and, too often,
that last hundred yards’ walk means being soaked to the skin. Any number
of stray dogs and cats find shelter in its many doorways, howling and
whining all through the night.
[Illustration:
GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AT ANGORA.
p. 141
]
My guide is supposed to call for me at ten o’clock in the morning, but I
have often enough rejoiced at his indifference to the clock. There is so
much to sketch from our front door: an unused cemetery, with
moss-covered stèles (tombstones) lying in picturesque confusion; a
tumble-down shepherd’s hut; a crumbling mosque; mud houses in need of
repair; and for background, a steep hill crowned by Timourlin’s tomb.
[Illustration:
“There is so much to sketch from our front door.”
]
While painting, I have counted just four passers-by—two men leading
their fruit-laden donkeys, and two women taking their asses to drink. No
artist can resist Oriental landscapes; and genius, I suppose, would
hardly remember to share my longing for nice warm “Western” baths in an
atmosphere that means “microbes” in summer and in winter all kinds of
discomfort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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