THE TRIPOLITAN QUESTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 83, 28 September 1911, Page 5

THE TRIPOLITAN QUESTION

A COLONEL'S DEPARTURE POSTPONED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 27, 10 p.m. Constantinople, September 27. The departure of Colonel Fenzie, Chief of Staff of the Salonica Army Corps, lias been postponed. ITALIAN WARSHIPS HANDY. WHAT ITALY WANTS. ' Received 27, 11 p.m. Rome. September 27. Italian warships are cruising off Tripoli. The Italian Note to Turkey demands guarantees for the protection of Italians there, and adds that the despatch of reinforcements to Tripoli would be regarded as an extremely serious act. It ie understood that the guarantee* are equivalent to some form of protcetorate. TURKS GREATLY EXCITED. BUT WILLING TO MEET ITALY. Received 27, 11 p.m. Constantinople, September 27. Although the Young Turks are greatly excited against Italy, the Porte expresses willingness to remedy any legitimate grievances, and is now striving to secure Germany's and Austria's friendly isbervention. VIEWS OF FRENCH PAPERS. Paris, September 28. The newspapers declare that France must approve of Italy's action in Tripoli. The Young Turks, the papers say, are about to receive punishment for German sympathy. They twit Germany with being between their friends the Turks and their Italian ally. GERMAN ADVICE TO THE PORTE. Berlin, September 28. Germany has counselled the Porte to accede to Italy's ambitions an Tripoli, and has urged Italy to abstain from provoking hostilities.

ITALY'S POSITION. Rome, September 20. It is officially announced that Italy's action with regard to Tripoli is the direct consequence of the Porte's refusal to listen to a. protest against the unfair treatment of Italians there, coupled with a denial of the preferential treatment to which Italy was entitled by its special position. Italy was also actuated by a desire to consolidate its Mediterranean position, in view of France's claim di Morocco. THE FUTURE OF TRIPOLI.

SOME ITALIAN VIEWS. Nominally Tripoli is Turkish territory, but, as Art Italian writer remarked some time «igo, the decision ■of the great Powers ir> 1830 to recognise the rights of the Sultan has not proved able to withstand the revelation of the value of the land. Little by little France and England have "acquired" larger and larger tracts of so-called Turkish territory, until now all the hinterland of Tripoli. which shoild have gone with it. has been rtbsorbed or is in process of absorption by one or the other of these Powers. Vittoria Nazari, in a vigorously-writ-ten article in the Xuova Antologia (Rome) in 1908, called upon Italy to rouse herself and take action in securing her share before it is too late. Already, owing to the encroachments above mentioned, Tripoli has lost a great share of her commercial possibilities. "The British campaign has been most thorough. From the mouth of'the River Niger they have established an excellent service of steamships, which canry freight direct to European ports. Up the river as far as Lakoja they have a swift service of river boats, which bring the freight down to the seaeoast, and now they haive projected a network of railway lines which will connect Lakoja •with all the sultanates of the centre. This means simply that the large and very important caravan trade from the Sahara and the trade with the populous regions of the Soudan, which for centuries have found their way to the sea through Tripoli, have been diverted from this natural route, leaving Tripoli with notliing but its agricultural possibilities." It is too late to prevent this loss, but Signor Nazari urged Italian authorities to hasten and save what is left. Tripoli, although now so neglected among the flourishing colonies of North Africa as to l>e called the Cinderella of the region, possesses many advantages which peculiarly fit it for being the scene of a great colonial campaign by Italy. In the first place, it is no uncertain venture. Tts history shows that all it needs is intelligent civilisation to make it of great value agriculturally. '"ln the time of the Roman Empire," says one Italian writer, "it was famous for its fertility, especially the region now known as BarcA. Prodigious quantities of olives were raised here in Ronran times, as well as grains of all kinds and fruits famous for their abundance and excellence. The fertile soil and favorable climate have neither of them changed since those days, but centuries of the wretched and corrupt rule ol Turkey, with its system of absentee and irrrsr-onsihle officials, have reduced the people to the state of dull and de-pairing apathy in which Egypt was before England took hold of it. The present flourishing condition of that country. a'»' of Algeria, which- was rescued by the French from similar misrule, shows what lies before Tripoli under a wise and iiH European administration. Another favorable factor is that there is no way ol conquest against the native inhabitant': needed as in the ill-fated Abyssinian campaign. The population, which is vcrv sparsely scattered over the countr-v there being on an average only one inhabitant to a snuare mile, would welcome eagerly a chamre from their cruel and rapacious Turkish masters." Signor warns his people, however, that a war is needed which is sometimes more difficult for a modern and bureaucratic nation to conduct than a war by way of conquest, and that is a campaign of strict economic wisdom and honesty, free from red-tape, bold, full of initiative, honest, and persistent. Great engineering undertakings are needed to regulate the water supply, and in letting these contracts there must be the greatest care to avoid the disastrous corruption so flagrant in the ■ French attempt in Panama.