CHAPTER XXI
A TURKISH CABINET—THE THREE BEST-KNOWN MINISTERS—A CABINET OF YOUNG MEN
Unlike the European type to which we are accustomed, the Cabinet of the Assembly is almost exclusively composed of very young men, possessed, however, of the strong determination to serve their country.
Mustapha Kemal Pasha has great faith in youth, and his oldest minister is probably no more than forty-two. “Youth,” he said, “makes mistakes that can be corrected; age and experience make the mistakes of routine.” Fethi Bey, who is the chief’s right hand, also believes in youth, and was himself a minister at thirty-two.
RAUF BEY—PRIME MINISTER.
Ex-Naval Officer.
He speaks perfect English and knows England better than any other Turk.
p. 192
Here, again, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are independent, the one of the other. One may fall, while the other remains. I am inclined to think, on closer examination, that the Ministers are seldom entrusted with the initiative and responsibility which our Ministers, in theory at least, enjoy; although for them all criticism and supervision comes, as it were, from below. They might, perhaps, be best described as Heads of Departments, whose every action is open to all eyes in the Assembly, submitted to the keenest scrutiny, and freely discussed. Sometimes they seem able to keep their position after heated discussions and interpolations, but, on the other hand, they may fall in consequence of some detail which, with us, would pass unnoticed—such as the nomination of an unsatisfactory functionary. They are all, certainly, very able men; with extraordinary energy, enthusiasm, and devotion. Although not constituted as a formal Cabinet, they meet to consider the most important questions that will come before the Assembly. Mustapha Kemal Pasha is entitled to preside at these meetings whenever he desires to be present; but, as a rule, the Chair is taken by Rauf Bey, Prime Minister without a Portfolio. They are not appointed by the President or the Prime Minister, but elected by the whole Assembly.
I have discussed this system with many of our European statesmen, who, one and all—including Lord Curzon—do not consider that it could permanently work well or be successfully applied to any stable, important State.
The Turks, however, maintain that a Minister should only be elected to watch, as it were, the special interests and concerns of his Department, and that the People themselves should be responsible, through their representatives in Parliament, for all legislation. The Assembly controls both law-making and administration.
For them, of course, we of the West cannot decide, or, perhaps, judge. We have scarcely of late years earned the right to criticise!
Rauf Bey is a man of about forty, a gentleman as we understand the word, who has travelled among the best intellects of Europe, and had the courage and energy to adapt many ideals thus acquired to the needs of his own country. His brilliance and his devotion are universally acknowledged.
Formerly a Naval officer, he distinguished himself in all the wars of the last twenty-five years; and his command of the Hamidieh in the Balkan War, against the whole of the Greek Fleet, is not yet forgotten. As Marine Minister in Izzet Pasha’s Cabinet he accompanied General Townshend and Admiral Calthorpe to Mudros, and signed the Armistice with the Allies. In the Chamber of Deputies at Constantinople he did not hesitate to avow his allegiance to Mustapha Kemal, and was consequently one of the first to be arrested by the English and sent to Malta. Handsome, intelligent, a hard worker, subtle and liberal-minded, he very soon came to the front. He was the first Vice-President of the Assembly, and became Prime Minister last May. During the absence of Ismet Pasha at Lausanne, he also acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
I heard him several times during my stay in Angora, and his fearless speeches were not only a political event, but always caused something of a sensation outside the capital.
He has never disguised his love for England, nor what he owes to her education. The disillusion after Mudros and at Malta was hard to bear. He had not only to mourn for a shattered idol, but to suffer abuse from his fellow-countrymen for a trust of which he had been so proud.
He is, however, far too intelligent to quarrel with a whole nation for the errors of its Government. “The future depends on England,” he said; “we can do nothing to improve relations until peace is signed; but there will be abundant opportunities in the future, and, if England is willing, she can come to us then.”
“In six months,” I replied, “we shall be as great friends as ever we were.”
“That, again, depends entirely upon you.”
I asked him whether large concessions had been made to France in return for her political support.
“As the first to understand the Nationalist movement,” he replied, “we owe her a great moral debt; which I have myself acknowledged and called on the world to witness. But for concessions, the field is open to all. We shall, naturally, accept the most advantageous offer.”
Rauf Bey has strong theories about education; and has determined that it shall be made to develop the new Ideal. He closed a school at Adalia because the children had been taught that Smyrna is Greek and the Eastern villayets are Armenian. “Every Turk should learn that Smyrna has never been Greek; an alien minority, protected by foreign powers, has been the cause of all our troubles.”
It is, obviously, of the first importance that Turkish children should be inspired, from the beginning, with loyalty to the Fatherland by knowing the fine story of its growth. “We need schools, and good foreign schools,” said Rauf Bey, “but until they will work under our supervision and control we show no favour to any offender, French, American or Italian—we close all.”
I hear that in the American College at Broussa a Turkish woman has been appointed to teach geography and history, a concession one hopes will soon be generally adopted.
Rauf Bey had told me, on board the Agamemnon, what had been said to Admiral Calthorpe when the Armistice was signed: “We are here to end the terrible bloodshed of so many years. We accept these terms because we know that the great English nation and the Allies will keep their words.” Then, to his own officers: “Is it not true, gentlemen, England always keeps her word?” and they all answered, “Yes.”
But we know what happened!
So much has been written about his unfortunate reception in London in 1922, that Fethi Bey, the Minister of the Interior, is well known to us. Seeing that everyone is given a courteous hearing in Turkish Ministries, one feels this unnecessary discourtesy the more. And Fethi Bey, like Mustapha Kemal Pasha and Rauf Bey, was an ardent admirer of England, cured for ever by the war of any affection for Germany.
As an Army officer, for two years military attaché in Paris, secretary to the Committee of Union and Progress in Sofia, and Minister of the Interior in Izzet Pasha’s Cabinet, Fethi Bey has had a varied and useful career. During his stay in Sofia, Mustapha Kemal was his military attaché, and they were both staff captains at Salonika. It was as a prisoner in Malta that he learnt the fluent English he had so little occasion to speak in London.
Fethi Bey, Minister of the Interior of New Turkey.
No picture of Angora could be complete without a photo of Fethi Bey. As this has not arrived in time, we leave his place empty, as one leaves the place of the absent friend at the festive board—unfilled.
He is very observant and far-seeing, undemonstrative, and, despite his charming smile, bitingly sarcastic; not, perhaps, quite so daring as Rauf Bey, but more level-headed. In a country devastated from end to end, and lacking in every necessity, he has shown marvellous skill as an organiser. Very early each morning he leaves his simple villa at Tchan-Kaya for the tiny primitive office in which he “handles” a constant stream of callers, busy about every variety of concerns, with an almost American speed. After a hasty lunch he goes to the Assembly, and finally rides home, often through many inches of snow, in which no car or carriage could make its way.
The last of the “three great men” of the Assembly, Ismet Pasha, is well known and respected in Europe for his titanic duel with Lord Curzon.
Though now only thirty-eight, it was he who created, out of nothing, the fine army which chased the Greeks out of Asia Minor. Victor at the two In Eunus, it was he who won back all the enemy-occupied territory as far as the Mediterranean. As victor also at Moudania, it was he who, with a dignified courtesy that astonished the whole Conference, defended the “Nationalist” interests at Lausanne.
Of the other personalities in the Cabinet one could write much. To understand, and sum up, the strength and importance of the Assembly, one must meet and know them all.