Mustafa Statue

The emancipation of Turkey from the doctrines of the Koran seems to be a cardinal policy of Turkish Republicanism. First, the sale of alcoholic stimulants was permitted (TIME, Mar. 10, 1923), although the Koran forbids it; second, Turks were made monogamous by passage of a law (TIME, Aug. 18), although the Koran permits a man four wives; now, a movement is on foot to erect, at Angora, a gigantic equestrian statue of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, President of Turkey, although the Koran proscribes representation of living beings in any form whatever.

The latter infraction of the Mohammedan religion was made known by Moukbil Kemal Bey, the famed Turkish architect who superintended the reconstruction of the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem and the Mosque of Mohammed at Medina and who has designed many public buildings at Constantinople and Angora, the new capital of Turkey.

Moukbil Kemal Bey arrived, recently, in Manhattan to secure sketches and designs for the Mustafa Kemal statue. Naturally he journeyed to Stamford, Conn., and there consulted the famed U. S. sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and received from him a sketch which, with others, he will take back to Turkey for approval. The definite acceptance of any plan will not be made for the present; but there is every prospect, it was said, of a $20,000 statue of the great Mustafa, "made in America," adorning the city of Angora.