The Next Crisis Centre?

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 154, 25 March 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Next Crisis Centre?

PECULATION is rife as to why Italy has chosen the present C/ moment to raise her long-standing grievance,” says the "Economist.” “Is she being pushed to do so by Germany, who wishes to deflect her attention from lost Balkan markets, or is she making an effort to secure a before the Nazis become so strong that they can jettison their weaker partner, or is she adopting the well-worn bazaar technique of asking five times the sum you are prepared to take (in this case a controlling interest in the Jibuti railway, or a reduction of the Suez Canal dues, or belligerent rights for General Franco)’? Perhaps all three motives are contributory causes. “If. on the contrary, her tactics are designed to bring about transfers of Mediterranean territory, they are over-optimistic. Italy's strongest argument is. perhaps, the economic. Tunisia has valuable iron ore deposits, producing nearly 1,090,000 tons of hematite ore, a large part of which now goes to the United Kingdom (France having her own supplies in Lorraine).

“There are also phosphate deposits near Gafsa. The possession of these commodities would help Italy far more than their loss would hurt France. But, on the other hand, Italy’s share in the trade of Tunisia is very small, amounting to 9 per cent, of exports and 3 per cent, of imports in 1937, while there is a thriving trade between France and Tunis.

“In any case, the economic arguments are swamped by the political. France would not give up Corsica or Nice; she could not give up Tunisia without jeopardising her whole Imperial structure. In (be first place, her naval and air base at Bizerta (which is only an hour’s run from Tunis by car), is the keystone of her North African defence system, covering not only Tunisia but the whole of Eastern Algeria.

“Secondly, though the Moslems of Tunisia, being professional grumblers, often carp at French rule, they infinitely prefer France to Italy because, like the Egyptians, they are well informed about the means which Italy used to conquer Libya.

“Moreover, they have two other reasons for disliking Fascism : one is that they have received more lenient treatment under the French Left than under the French Right; the other, that they are strongly nationalist and

dislike the rival nationalism which is paraded in their streets by the Italian community, Were France to transfer any of them to Italy, she would lose control of all other Moslems in her African Empire.

“Lastly, if the Italians in Tunisia gain their way by clamorous behaviour. France lays herself open to the same onslaught from the Spaniards in Morocco, or, still nearer home, in Algeria. For these compelling reasons she is bound to fight rather than give in to Italian demands for territory. As likely of fulfilment is the French students' clamour for Vesuvius. While Italy is about it, why not ask for Soho'?”

“Some of the Italian claims." forcibly asserts “The Times,” “are so fan tastic that they also can hardly have been seriously meant; and the fact that they have all been raised together in so strident a fashion has tended to drown the voice of reason in dealing with one or two more legitimate grievances.

‘The Suez Canal, for example, constructed by French capital and therefore directed by a preponderance of French business men, has become a vital artery between Italy and her largest colony.

“She is now the second largest user of it—though Italian taffic through the Canal is still only 16 per cent, as against the British fraction of 47 per cent, of the whole—but neither her Government nor her nationals have any voice in its management.

“The dues are high—though they have just again been slightly lowered; the profits are large: and Italy, a great contributor, draws nothing out, though she has the advantage shared by all of its extremely efficient administration There is, in fact, an arguable case for her representation on the board.

“Again, in the matter of Jibuti, the general position has been completely altered by the Italian acquisition of Abyssinia, which has now been recognized by all the European Powers with interests in Africa.

“The position of French Somaliland, where the railway from Addis Ababa reaches the sea, leaves the Italians with no share in the control over the only railway in Abyssinia, of which they are now, of course by far the greatest users.