MEDITERRANEAN RIVALRIES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 21

MEDITERRANEAN RIVALRIES

"1 Italian and Moslem Ambitions

NO sea anywhere in the world today is more strongly fortified than the blue, tideless Mediterranean. And no littoral anywhere is more open to storms of international hatred and suspicion.

[By A. C. CUMMINGS!

more Italian settlers, and that would relieve the pressure of population at home. j It is not surprising, therefore, that for years past Italian policy, based on a huge garrison in Libya and on the fortification of little-known islands, should have been directed towards stirring up Arab feeling against the dominant Mediterranean Powers, Britain and France. Under the Anglo-Italian pact this propaganda has ceased in great measure. But Mussolini has not withdrawn the title he gave himself—- “ Protector of the Moslems.” For France, Mediterranean communications are as vital as for Britain. She must keep open her sea-lanes to North Africa lest her black armies there should be needed in the next European war. Just now there is worry in Paris, because the Italian occupation of the Balearic Islands threatens the transport of these armies.

Eight nations border this 2000miles long saltwater highway; all Europe uses it for trade and traffic and for peaceable holiday-making. Yet nowhere do so many national and international interests clash or rival peoples arm against each other, either to preserve what they already have, or seek for more. Italy frankly claims the Mediterranean for herself. “Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) is the Fascist slogan. Nearly 85 per cent, of Italian trade is carried in Italian ships on the Mediterranean, and naturally enough the Fascists resent the fact that both entrances, east and west, are controlled by Britain. Italy in the middle, with her 2500 miles of coast-line, is capable of easy bombardment by a foreign fleet. As a measure of elementary strategy she must, therefore, seek by all means to strengthen her grip on islands and territories valuable to her in war-time.

Threat of the Arabs Spain in the western Mediterranean, and Palestine in the east, are centres of political thunderstorms whose reverberations daily keep Europe in a state of apprehension. All the world knows about them. Greece stirs uneasily under the personal rule of a pro-Nazi dictator. Turkey is arming with money lent her by Great Britain. Egypt is troubled by the thought of Italian aggression and is building up an army of 2,000,000 men. Up the Adriatic, Jugoslavia watches her Fascist neighbour closely, remembering how recently her security was threatened. Even Albania, linked to Italy politically and fin-

Moreover, her new “African empire” which Mussolini has commemorated in marble on the “Imperial Way” in Rome, can be readily cut off and conquered by any Power whose navy is able to drive the Italian fleet into its harbours. As well as security, Italy also wants room to expand. Ethiopia, sub-tropical, desert-strewn, uncivilised, is not the Eldorado the Italian peasants expected it to be. On the other hand Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria could take many thousands

who, however, confessed later that he was so tired out by the physical effort required in his unorthodox method of progress that had the course been much longer he would have lost.

Racing seems always to have been the most easy form of sport for those who delighted in creating something different. A bricklayer, pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks, ran a race against o' one-legged railway porter, and would have won had not the roughness of the course given, the advantage to his agilely hopping opponent! Every year the porters of Covent Garden, London, indulge in their peculiar-looking basket races, and other sporting feats. A not so familiar race once took place between two porters who were to vie with each other, one walking on stilts, while the other carried a heavy sack of potatoes, over a course which extended from Covent Garden to Hampstead Heath. The stilt walker proved faster, but his opponent had the advantage in being less hampered by the road traffic. Also, the stilt walker was held up once or twice by inquiring policemen. But in spite of all he reached the winning-post 10 minutes ahead of his adversary. The prize for all this physical effort was* the princely sum of one guinea! • Even cricket, with its millions of conservative devotees, has been played with many differences. On one notable occasion, years ago. a match was played between onearmed and one-legged men! A picture of this match, during vrhich excellent cricket was said to have been played, hangs in the pavilion.

anciaUy, has her own troubles. It is on the southern shores of _th« Mediterranean, however—in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco —that what may in time become the most dangerous of political gales is how ■gathering force. This is not a region that figures much in newspaper headlines. Yet here the Arab, world is undergoing a vast transformation of feeling, and a nation-' alist movement is growing that may in time make as big a stir as that in' Congress India. ’ In Tunisia, with its 2,500,000 Arabs and large Italian colony, the French Government already has its hands full. A movement for Arab political emancipation Is becoming formidable. At present it would be con-' tent with a treaty of alliance with France similar to that between Britain and Egypt. But it is hardly likely to stop there. In Algeria, which is part of France administratively, a semi-secret “Star of North Africa” party, started by an Arab politician, demands full political independence. Lesser groups seek home rule, and are fanatically in earnest. . In Morocco the Moors are agitated by a lively campaign carried on by Moslem Youth organisations, who remember and exploit the former glories of Islam on the - shores of the Mediterranean. From Spanish Morocco 75,000 Berbers have gone to fight for General Franco. Propaganda has been at work on them and they have been told that Italy will be their champion if ever the Arab peoples revolt and found a new Moslem Empire in Africa. Frpm the Straits of Gibraltar to the Suez Canal the Middle Sea boils with activities the outcome of which cannot be foreseen.