Divorced

Louis XIV, paragon of despots, silenced the first signs of remonstrance against his wishes by the ever-effective reply : "Tel est noire plaisir."

Despots and dictators are formed in the same mould; last week, "Ghazi" Mustafa Kemal Pasha, President of the Turkish Republic, announced that it was his pleasure to divorce his wife, Latife Hanoum. And with no more formality, except the possible signing of a document, she was divorced.

Accounts disagreed widely as to the reason of the nuptial cleavage. Some said that Mme. Kemal, ardent feminist, mixed in matters that did not concern her and was apt to treat her spouse with high-handed masterfulness. Other accounts said that the wife had found the husband unbearable, had decided to live with him no longer, had herself sought the divorce. Official statements discreetly said nothing. All that was definitely known was that about three weeks ago Mme. Kemal left Angora precipitately. Ministers of the Government were present to bid her farewell, but the President was conspicuously absent. Latife Hanoum, 21, pretty, plump, short, graceful and possessed of "large, .luminous and altogether entrancing black eyes," is the daughter of Mouamerou-Chaki Bey, rich merchant of Smyrna, who once had connections with the New York Stock Exchange.

As a child she received her education first from an English governess; later, at Tudor Hall, Chiselhurst, near London. During the Graeco-Turkish War of 1921-22, she, living in Smyrna with her papa, was kept under surveillance by the Greeks, who believed her to be a spy. When, in the summer of 1922, the Turks drove the Greeks into the sea and triumphantly entered Smyrna, Latife Hanoum, at the head of a group of Turkish maidens, first saw the manly form of "Ghazi" Mustafa Kemal Pasha, then about 41 years of age, to whom she offered buns, coffee and shelter under her father's roof.

Latife, brilliant and vivacious, intelligent and accomplished, naturally interested the grave Mustafa. She spoke 'fluently English, French and German, and had mastered the Turkish language, an uncommon achievement for a modern Turkish woman. Moreover, she profoundly believed in the enlightenment of her sex in Turkey. Her object was to bring Turkish women to the social and cultural level of Western women and, en route, to destroy traditions (many of which were not sanctioned by the Koran) which had for centuries bound women to men as slaves. Moreover, she was an heiress.

All these things inclined Mustafa Kemal's heart toward her and, as Latife Hanoum. subsequently said, their union was more a joining of minds than anything else. The man Mustafa used to talk about Turkey to the girl Latife in the shade of her father's house. He told her of all he hoped to accomplish for his native land and of the prejudices, born of ignorance, bred of superstition. that he meant to extirpate. The girl listened enthralled.

"These conversations," she wrote later, "continued for four days and on the fifth evening I was surprised when our great General told me in a very matter-of-fact way that, having a Western education, he thought I would make a fitting partner for him, and before I realized what I was doing I had accepted the offer in a real unsentimental, matter-of-fact spirit."

The engagement was generally welcomed. Papa, pleased, did the "heavy" by arranging a marriage dowry of a million Turkish pounds (then about $650,000). The marriage took place on Jan. 29, 1923. Latife was in the kitchen, so the story goes, superintending a feast being prepared in honor of the recapture of Smyrna. About 50 guests were present. Mustafa Kemal Pasha asked to see his fiancee. He suggested to her that they marry forthwith, to which proposal the girl readily assented after but a moment of blushing hesitation. A mufti was called in and speedily performed the ceremony.

The bride and bridegroom subsequently wended their way through Anatclia to Angora, the capital. Everywhere they were acclaimed; especially did the bride meet with unhesitating approval. She accompanied her husband everywhere, even to the battle front where Turks were administering a knock-out to the Greeks. Her position and her prestige she used to further the cause of women, but in a land, traditionally conservative, she was not able to get them enfranchised. But her advocation of monogamy has to a great extent been effective. Nonetheless, despite laws allowing only one wife to a man, except in "unusual cases," experts are divided over the permanency of the experiment, some asserting that its present success is due to economic conditions, both sides holding that polygamy and monogany have merit.

In Smyrna, where she once more resided under her father's roof, a diligent reporter discovered her. Said she to him with many gestures:

"It is a case of Napoleon and Josephine over again. I loved my husband and did all in my power to help him realize his ambitions for himself and the country. Our union stands in the way of his further progress, and as in the case of Josephine, it is the woman who must be sacrificed. "I have no complaints. If by parting I can make for his happiness I will be proud, but just a little heartsore at the time when I think of what has been." Then, pensively, she added: "It's a pity, isn't it, this parting of two whom Allah seemed to have brought together to work His will by a harmonious, happy association ? Ours was a love match even in the sense in which you understand the term in the West.

"My husband and I were as happy as a man and woman could be in our Garden of Eden until the serpent came. Who was the serpent? I can see the question shaping in your mind, but I can't answer it. That's my secret and it will die with me. Suffice it for the world that the point was reached where my husband was brought to the belief that he had to choose between his partner and his future. He chose."