“His energy, his straightforwardness, his frankness and the rapidity with which he made decisions coupled to the firmness with which he saw that decisions, once made, were immediately executed became apparent even during the first weeks of his administration and gradually won him the full confidence and devotion of his people. This would have been his opportunity had he desired to establish a dictatorship, had he wanted to place his personal interests above the interests of his country, had his democratic utterances been of the lips and not of the heart. During the first months of the national movement Turkey was taking the chance of seeing its individual freedom trampled once more under the booted feet of an Abdul-Hamid or an Enver ... if the leader who was offering himself had been any one else than Mustapha Kemal. But the Pasha had given a few years before the proof of his matchless patriotism and abnegation by stepping back into an inconspicuous command after having saved his country by a series of victories at the Dardanelles, and therefore the country felt pretty safe in confiding its destinies to the hands of Mustapha Kemal Pasha.
“The events have proved that this confidence could not have been better placed. Under the very guns of Turkey's enemies he organized the national resistance and changed the prevailing state of nervousness and despondency into an intelligent state of national efficiency and enthusiasm. Starting with a handful of followers he opened new horizons to the Turkish people, discouraged and broken-hearted by their previous utter collapse. While the nation lay prostrated at the mercy of its enemies, he stepped forth and showed to the Turks the silver lining behind the threatening clouds and demonstrated once more to the world that a nation which is led properly and has a will to live is unconquerable.
“Mustapha Kemal Pasha had a double duty to perform. Turkey disarmed and bound hand and foot, her capital occupied by the enemy, her Government departments and administration completely disorganized, had to regain her independence and needed therefore not only a capable military chief but also a capable organizer and statesman. Mustapha Kemal Pasha rose to the occasion and while he was organizing on one hand the military resources of his country, while he was arming and training thousands of recruits and building up factories to furnish them with guns and ammunition and to clothe them as best he could, he was on the other hand helping the National Assembly to formulate a new constitution, to make a new form of government—sort of republic fitted to the peculiar requirements of Turkey—based on the broadest and most practical principles of democracy.
“And as soon as his military victories secured the existence of his country and permitted him to work on more permanent matters he turned completely to the National Assembly—resigning his commission as Commander-in-Chief—and devoted his attention to the consolidation of the new form of Government and to the perfection of its administration.
“But as the enemy, once more encouraged and equipped by powerful western powers, again took the offensive and advanced into Anatolia, burning villages, killing civilians and massacring old men, women and children, the National Assembly turned again to Mustapha Kemal Pasha and electing him once more Commander-in-Chief, asked him for new victories—and Turkey did not have to wait long to have her wishes satisfied by the military genius of the Pasha.
“Ever since the definite organization of the National Assembly, Mustapha Kemal Pasha has spent all his energies in investing it with the powers he held in his own hands. He has methodically and without faltering worked to transfer his own unlimited powers as Chief Executive and Commander to the duly elected representatives of the people. This process of self-restriction has gone so far that to-day the Turkish National Assembly is endowed with far greater powers and prerogatives than any House of Representatives or Parliament of any country. It has all the sovereign prerogatives including those of declaring war and concluding peace. It elects its own members to the different administrative functions of the Cabinet and removes them whenever it sees fit and all this thanks to the restriction of his own powers by Mustapha Kemal Pasha.
“In doing this the Turkish hero had a double purpose: he knows that the ideas and ideals he is fighting for are not personal to him but are shared by the whole nation and he wants to prove this to the world—on the other hand, a true democrat at heart, he wants the entire nation, through its duly elected representatives, to be enabled to handle its own destinies as it sees fit. Sure of final military success, he desired to increase within the nation the number of statesmen capable of perpetuating indefinitely the life of a rejuvenated Turkey and through painstaking efforts, through sharing gradually his own responsibilities with members of the National Assembly he has created a nucleus of statesmen enjoying the national confidence and capable of commanding international esteem, who will be able to guide their country along the road of progress.
“All the actions of Mustapha Kemal Pasha have been dictated by his peerless patriotism, his genuine spirit of abnegation and his absolute unselfishness.
“This modern Turkish Washington lives with his civilian and military household in a little house near the station and opposite the building of the National Assembly. This house, which is surrounded by a garden with big trees and flowers, was originally the house of the station master. It has eight or ten rooms, small and unpretentious, soberly furnished throughout. The only luxury in the house is a writing-desk almost as large as the room it occupies. At this table Mustapha Kemal Pasha spends all his time when he is not at the front or on military and administrative tours of inspection, or working at the National Assembly. It is in this den that the General works from early in the morning until late at night, without any distraction, continuously and painstakingly striving to bring about his dream—not a dream of personal ambition or of national conquests, but a dream of freedom and of independence for a people—his people—whose one aim is to remain master of its own home.
“The leader of Turkish women, Halidé Edib Hanoum, is in her own field as great a figure as Mustapha Kemal Pasha. Her talents are most diversified and she has, like Mustapha Kemal Pasha, a very strong will for putting through anything she undertakes. Although she is still young she has been for many years at the head of the movement for the emancipation of Turkish women. You probably remember, as I do, that she first attracted public attention when her verses were published. It created quite a stir in Turkey as she was the first Turkish poetess, at least the first who came out under her own name and bowed to the public through her books. I still remember the first time I saw her, in the good old pre-war days in the summer of 1913. I had gone with some friends to the Sweet Waters of Asia on the Bosphorus which were at that time the fashionable 'rendezvous' on Friday afternoons. The little stream bordered with old trees and green meadows was crowded with rowboats and caiks leisurely gliding on its transparent waters. Suddenly among the boats I saw a slender skiff with two rowers wearing embroidered Oriental liveries. At the stern a young girl was sitting, her veil a little more transparent than it was usually worn at the time and her dark brown locks showing a little more than those of her sisters. She held a white embroidered parasol daintily in her hand to shelter her from the strong rays of the summer sun. Her pensive black eyes were beautiful. Her boat crossed ours and the vision had disappeared in a few seconds. I held my breath and asked my companions who she was, and when I heard that it was 'Halidé Hanoum, the poetess' I was more impressed than ever. Little did I guess that the next time I would see Her it would be here in Angora.