the Minister of Public Security, and the exchange between him and Bediuzzaman went as follows:

 

The Minister: "The Sultan sends you greetings. He has assigned you a thousand kurus as a salary. He said that later, when you return to the East, he will make it twenty to thirty liras. And he sent you these gold liras as a royal gift."

The Reply: "I am not a beggar after a salary; I could not accept it even if it was a thousand liras. I did not come to Istanbul for myself. I came for my nation. Also this bribe that you want to give me is hush-money."

The Minister: "You are rejecting an imperial decree. An imperial decree cannot be rejected."

The Reply: "I am rejecting it, so that the Sultan will be annoyed and will summon me, and I can tell him the truth."

The Minister: "The result will be disastrous."

The Reply: "Even if the result is the sea, it will be a spacious grave. If I am executed, I shall rest in the heart of a nation. Also when I came to Istanbul, I brought my life as a bribe; do whatever you like. And I say seriously that I want to give a practical warning to my fellow-countrymen that forming a connection with the State is in order to serve it, it is not in order to grab a salary. And someone like me serves the nation and State through advising and admonishing. And that is through making a good impression. And that is through expecting nothing in return. And that is through being unprejudiced, which is through being without ulterior motives, which is through renouncing all personal benefits. As a consequence, I am excused from not accepting a salary."

The Minister: "Your aim of spreading education in Kurdistan is being discussed by the Cabinet."

The Reply: "According to what rule do you delay education and speed up salaries? Why do you prefer my personal benefits to the general benefit of the nation?"

The Minister became angry.

Bediuzzaman: "I have been free. I grew up in the mountains of