ITAO-TURKO WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 190, 9 February 1912, Page 8

ITAO-TURKO WAR.

TURKS AND ARABS HOLDING THEIR OWN. :.;••/ Is Christianity dead in Europe? asks Mr. Alan Ostler, the special'correspondent of the London Express. Is it indifferent to the transgression of every principle of our professed faith which allows the Christian powers to look on while Christian fights Moslem, and fights foul in every way, while the Moslem fights fair? Or is it merely that Europe is ignorant of the inhuman way in which Italy is waging war on a mere garrison of Turks and a few thousand ragged Arab tribesmen? Hitherto the truth about Tripoli has been sedulously kept by the Italian censors from reaching Europe; and I believe that since the news of that hideous massacre of women and children leaked out, nothing has 'been known. But though that massacre—l could add a score of almost incredible details to those already made known —though that massacre is Italy's most revolting crime against civilisation, it is by no means the only one. The Italians have bombarded our hospitals here, although the white flag flies from the roofs. This is not done in ignorance. Bombs have been deliberately dropped on them from aeroplanes; and the Italian gunners, having watched the hurried transference of sick and wounded from One hospital to another, have intentionally made a target of the new shelter. They have flatly refused to;allow any medical stores "to reach 'the 'Turkish army. Our doctor's have hot had enough drugs or surgiqal instruments, and band-' ages have to be improvised from strips of clothing. Our sick and wounded—among them an English soldier, who has lain in 'bed for six weeks with dysentery —are suffering for want of proper attention. The Italians know it, and have refused the application made to them for permission to pass medical stores through to .the Turks. Italian cruisers patrol the coast, casually bombarding any miserable village it sight. They wrecked) Zoura with their shells, giving no warning of their intended 'bombardment; so that women, children and invalids had to be withdrawn under Are. It is also reported that Italians, having made no prisoners of war (for reasons which I shall state presently) have transhipped about three thousand of the non-combatant Arab population of Tripoli to Italy, to exhibit the poor wretches there as proofs of the "continued success of Italian arms." (Meanwhile, the Moslem fights fair—and wins. For, let there 'be no mistake

about it, Turkey is winning all along the line. The headquarter camp of Neshat Bey, in which I now write, was occupied less than a month ago by the-Italians. Now, the Italians hardly dare to show themselves iheyond the walls of Tripoli. This afternoon I rod* out with a small party of officers, beyond our advanced posts, almost to the town itself.

We were seen and fired at by heavy artillery from three separata points. The Italian gunners think half-a-dozen mounted men well worth the expenditure of a score or so of their biggest shells. All day long the boom of .Italian cannon rolls and mutters over the sand, dunes; One wouM think -that /heavy artillery, duels between two armies iri close - conflict were constantly in progress. They would be, if the Turks had their way; hut, as it is, the perpetual thunder of guns means that a Turkish scout has shown up for a moment on the sky-line; or that an Arab caravan has passed within sight of the forts; or that an Italian gunner thinks he has seen a horse or two on the horizon. But, though they bomlbard with much noise, they have hitherto done little harm, and for days they have refused to come out into the open. As a matter of fact, it is of the Arabs tkat the Italians are afraid. The massacre of unarmed men, of women and of children was a bad mistake. Without it, Italy need hardly have feared any serious opposition from the Arab tribesmen, for the Arab is not a patriot, and not even the Turks themselves had much hope of help from the tribes. They knew that the Arab, though he can be fanatical enough, is not gifted with foresight. He seeks always his immediate profit, and would probably have preferred selling provisions to Turks and Italians alike to taking up arms for either.

(But that massacre has Toused the whole population of the desert. Touch his wife, his horse or his house, and you rouse undying enmity in the Arab; and the Arabs of Tripoli have seen wells filled with the mutilated bodies of their wives and children; have seen their unarmed fathers and brothers shot down in scores; their poor houses battered into dust by Italian shells; their gardens wantonly ruined, and their trees destroy-

There are other considerations, too, which make it highly improbable that, the Arabs will ever be reconciled to the notion of peace. The Turks "provide them with arms ; , and an Arab will do almost anything for a handful of cartri('"~?. The Arab auxiliaries receive fod- <■ r their horses, rice for themselves, ai.„ t piastre (sd) apiece per day. i, more than all, there are prospects of unlimited plunder. Italian carbines, knapsacks, bayonets, boots, saddles, even - waggons (of the Bersaglieri) are scattered all over Northern Tripoli. ' being sold every day in the markets, and even horses are going cheap. For the Arab this is primarily a war of vengeance; but it is a war of rich profits also, and the Arab, at least, will never seek for peace. How, then, is all this to end? It took the French, who, after all, are soldiers, forty years to "pacify" Algeria—au bout du cannot. IWhat chance has this Italian army of ever venturing outside the walls of Tripoli? Were it not for the guns of their fleet they could not even hold their present and the prospects of a successful advance do not present themselves at all. The Turks themselves hope that Italy will be unable to continue the war owing to the, enormous expense which it entails upon her. The cost of the war to Turkey is practically nothing, but the reckless expenditure of big-gun ammunition alone costs the Italians thousands every hour. There are a few Italian prisoners here with the Turks. They have been allowed to telegraph home, at the expense of the Ottoman Government, to say that they are safe and in no danger of being eaten (which they firmly believed would be their fate); and those of them that are wounded receive every consideration. The Turkish doctors have other patients, too. I was in one of the medical tents this morning, and there entered a muffled little figure in the dress of an Arab girl. Hiding her face, she crouched on the floor, and the doctor, removing bandages and pads, showed me a ghastly cavity in the poor little creature's shou'l-' der. An Italian bullet had entered—from 'behind!— and had passed through, making a dreadful wound. I questioned her, and the child, still muffling her face in her striped robe, told me how the Christian soldiers broke into her father's house and killed her mother and sister, and how she, being near the door, had run out into the street. Some of the soldiers followed her to the door, and stood there firing at ■her as she ran down the -street; and "at last," said she, "one of those Christians shot me, as you see, here in the shoulder,- and I fell down."