precise replica of English trade unionism in Turkey—which God forbid!
There are some simple farm labourers, shopkeepers, lawyers, doctors who have studied in Paris, newspaper editors, University professors, and Valis.
The most enlightened speak practically every language in Europe, and are thoroughly well acquainted with public life on the Continent. They stand for the Freedom of Women, and did their best to make Halidé Hanoum a member of the Assembly. They would be perfectly at home in our most exclusive drawing-rooms; yet they work well, in the Cabinet itself, with men absolutely ignorant of any country except their own. "Social, or class, differences," I am told, "have no place in any Parliament. They are created by Society women outside!"
During the Conference at Lausanne, the papers published a scandalous statement that "a deputy could purchase a seat in the Assembly for ten gold Turkish pounds!" As a matter of fact, all Turkish elections are very carefully controlled by inspectors and the municipal authorities. No one who knows anything of M. Kemal and his colleagues would dream of imagining that this form of bribery or purchase could be allowed.
Smarting under the policy of Malta (not unlike that of Daudet's hero, who locked his goat in a room but forgot to close the window), the Grand "National" Assembly lives up to its name, and is, above all, anti-everything that could interfere with real freedom. For three and a half years of untold hardship and self-sacrifice the gospel of Nationalism has schooled the people. It is their religion to-day, from the "Pasha" himself to the humblest shepherd of the hills.
At Angora we read the papers and talk politics all day; at night we dream of the National Pact. Everyone watches for foreign telegrams; we all
