Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Social life and customs
“The offices of the Government are quartered in the largest buildings.
An old barrack shelters most of them. Its enormous rooms have been
partitioned into offices with a long corridor running between them.
Every office has a door on this corridor. On some of these doors there
are inscriptions indicating the names of the departments which abide
therein. The Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Commerce,
the Treasury Department, the Department of Agriculture and all other
civilian departments are located in this building.
“Another enormous building, a former school, shelters all the
departments pertaining to every activity necessary to the national
defense. Its offices are arranged on the same style as those for
civilian activities. Thus the Nationalist Government has, fittingly,
differentiated its war activities from its administrative activities.
The departments which are engaged in constructive work, whose
activities will secure the nation's development and progress are
completely separated from those whose duty is to secure the national
defense.
“The two most active civilian departments, or rather the two
departments to which the National Government attaches the greatest
importance among those engaged in constructive work are the Department
of Public Education and the Department of Hygiene and if--as all of us
here are absolutely convinced--the programs of these two departments
are strictly adhered to, Anatolia will be in a very few years the best
educated and the most hygienic country in the Old World.
“The Government conducts its business in the most democratic way
possible. The different heads of departments are members of the
National Assembly and are, therefore, all chosen directly by the
people. They are delegated to manage the departments by the vote of all
the members of the Assembly. Each head of department is individually
responsible to the Assembly for the good conduct and administration
of his department. He is removable by the vote of the Assembly which
immediately elects his successor. The heads of the departments have
their private offices whose doors are always open to all. As the
Government is of the people and for the people any citizen who desires
to see one of his deputies concerning a matter connected with his
department has the right to come in and is received at once without any
formalities. But he has to attend immediately to his business and then
he has to leave. Efficiency is the slogan of the National Government
and for this purpose all red tape has been completely eliminated. No
loitering, no “manana” policy is indulged in. Things that have to be
done, have got to be done immediately and no one has the right to
interfere for the pleasure of following the dictates of a set routine.
Truly this is the most efficient form of government that I have ever
seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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