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 CHAPTER XIX

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE GHAZI MUSTAPHA KEMAL PASHA

The Ghazi M. Kemal Pasha granted me the following interview just after the conference at Lausanne had assembled.

"To what extent, if any, has the attitude of the Grand National Assembly been responsible for setting public opinion against the Turks?" I asked.

"Our attitude has never changed. All reports of inconsistency are false, and circulated by the clever propaganda of our enemies. The Government has to render account of itself not only to a Chamber of Deputies, but to History; and no responsible or self-respecting Ministry could act with such disloyalty to its own principles, the very spirit of its being, as the Press has accused it of revealing. All these false reports come from those Englishmen, some of them official, who are working to prolong the war, a crime no one can lay on our shoulders. You know of the untiring efforts we made for peace, and you know the result. In any case, though personally accused, I am not responsible. I am only President of the Assembly. The Assembly is not one man."

"Do you think that a really sincere entente can be established between Turkey and Great Britain?"

"I do not think, I am certain, that we shall eventually return to the old traditional friendship. There are no reasons against, and so many in favour of, that course. We make no demands beyond respect and honour for our independence. We have sent away our Sultan to secure greater freedom, and to prevent all risk of danger to our independence."