Turks to Atatilrk

Dapper President Kamal Atatuerk, "Father of the Turks," definitely learned last week that a life of ease on a sumptuous superyacht awaited him whenever he felt inclined to leave his pink-tinted villa on the hill above Ankara, and take to Turkish waters. Before the star & crescent could be raised over President-Dictator Kamal Atatuerk's gift from his people, however, a diplomatic snarl between the U. S., Germany and Turkey had to be untangled.

The Savarona is one of the three largest, most elegantly appointed yachts in the world. She is exceeded in length only by the British royal yacht Victoria and Albert and the Italian royal yacht Savoia, in tonnage by only the Victoria and Albert. Designed like a fast transatlantic passenger ship, carrying a crew of 83, she was built at a cost of $2,000,000 in the Blohm & Voss shipyards of Hamburg.

The Savarona's owner remained a secret almost until her launching in 1931. She had been ordered simply by the ''Savarona Ship Corporation" of New York, and it was only later discovered that she was the property of Mrs. Emily Roebling Cadwalader, Philadelphia socialite. The ship's incorporation was publicized last year when the U. S. Bureau of Internal Revenue objected to income tax deductions made by Mrs. Cadwalader and Husband Richard M. Cadwalader Jr. in their 1932 returns. It was then revealed that travel-loving Mrs. Cadwalader had sold to her attorney 400 ship shares at $100 apiece. Since the value of a share had been $1,717, Mrs. Cadwalader claimed capital losses of $647,124--a matter that will be threshed out in a Federal court probably next winter. Meanwhile, the Savarona had cruised about the West Indian seas and had crossed the Atlantic several times, although she avoided U. S. waters.

Not because of income tax interest was the U. S. involved in the Savarona's sale last week but rather because, in a transfer of a U. S. ship to foreign registry, the U. S. Maritime Commission must know to what purpose, whether bellicose or not, the ship is to be put. Two bids were made for the ship, one by the Turks, the other by an unnamed German. Although it appeared the German bid might win, the required information about the future use of the ship was not supplied. The Maritime Commission was thus able to presume that the ship might be turned to German naval purposes. It forbade the sale. For her part, Turkey suspected that the Germans wanted to play the part of the middleman in the deal, getting the middleman's rake-off in a resale to Turkey involving blocked marks held for Turkey in the German Reichsbank. Since the Turks explicitly said the ship would be used only as a floating palace for their beloved "Father," the sale to Turkey was sanctioned, was even approved by the U. S. State Department. The Nazis rather crudely complicated things when a court order temporarily restrained the boat from passing into Turkish hands, but last week the Savarona was ready to leave Hamburg for her new home port, Istanbul.

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