MEDITERRANEAN SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 116, 2 October 1912, Page 7

MEDITERRANEAN SITUATION.

THE WAR IN TRIPOLI. Mr. G. P. Abbott, in the QuarterlyReview for .Tulv, describes the Tripolitan war from the Turkish side. His paper is gruesome reading for the friends of Italy. He glances at the very little that the Italians have done in nine months, and asks, at this rate of progress, how many decades will elapse before the annpxation of Tripolitania is converted into 'in occupation? ARABS' RELIGIOUS EXALTATION.

| The feeling among the defenders is one of patriotic and religious j exaltation. He says: "I have seen the wild tribesmen arrive from the interior armed with flintlocks, and go to the front armed with Martinis, Mausers, and even Sniders; and I said to myself—are these barefooted seallyways to oppose an army provided with the latest pattern of magazine rifle, with artillery, with aeroplanes, and everything necessary for war ? But I saw them rush to battle with shrieks of 'Allah akbar,' and return from the field loaded with spoils, and then I realised that these volunteers who know neither fatigue nor fear, who can subsist cheerfuly on a handful of oatmeal a day, and who are inspired by a faith in God as boundless as is their faith in themselves, are more; than a match for any number of disciplined, liberally-fed, and scientifically trained conscripts that is likely to be brought against them. I THE RAINS FAVORING THE ARABS.

"With every week that has passed since October, 1911, the position of the invaders has grown weaker and that of the defenders stronger. Funds subscribed all over the Moslem world have been pouring into the Turkish headquarters month by month, enabling the staff to obtain supplies from outside in ever increasing quantities. Nor is that all. The spell of drought under which the country lay for four years was this winter happily broken—according to some, by the enemy's own cannonades; and the rain has transformed the desert into a meadow. Where nothing but yellow sand and grey scrub was to be seen in December, in February bloomed a vast garden of bright verdure starred with an endless variety of flowers. The flocks and herds which abound in Tripolitania ; grew fat on the long luscious- grass; and the nomads brought their sheep and goats and cattle to the camp and sold, them at prices considered fabulous in the desert, but which would make a London butcher gasp. Thanks to the rains also, the fields in the oases, tilled in the win-' ter, are now yielding crops which will render the warriors independent of pro- ~ visions from outside in the coming season. In brief, the forces of the Crescent stand in no fear of starvation, while those of the Cross, since all caravp traffic with the hinterland has cpsed, rely for their foodstuffs almost' entirely on Europe.. The war cost.ltaiy, at a I moderate computation, £50,000 a' 'clay. The Turks say that it costs them only £T3-0,000 a month, and most of this ■money is raised by private, .contributions,.". ;!

Mr.iAbbott adds: "I felt as though the expeditionary force was laboring' under some curse quite outside the spheri of the campaign; as though some superior outside power compelled it to miss' evepv chance of success and by a vigorous procrastination to postpone a decisive issue indefinitely."

< i -GRAVE CONSEQUENCES' 1 FOR EUROPE. ' '

' More serious thaii the, difficulties of Italy,are the consequences 'fof all'the European Powers: • •" "The Arabs have learnt tliat 'it sifcle : for' tliem to resist s'necfcisfMfjr 'the •Uriiiy of a great European-power. - - : T ; h& discovery made in Tripolitaiiia has Ween imparted.to the vliole of-Northern Africa, to say nothing of the Moslem nations of Asia';' aild it 'is'abound sooner >or later to yield bitter fruit to all the European Tower's that exercise, or wish to exercise, dominion- over that part 'of. the world. I have seen the effect 'of the discovery on the natives of Tunisia, a'nd/.I have . reason to .belie\!fl..'Ahi}t[ it has not been without its effect on tive' natives of Egypt."

i The Pan-Islamic crusade lias received fresh impetus from the adhe.sion of 'the Sheikh of the Senussi. Moreover, Italy's seizure of islands in the Aegean has led the islanders to constitute themselves into an independent Aegean Confederation. As a bj'-product of Itlay's Libyan adventure there has come into being 'a new Near Eastern problem, and one that may prove even more knotty than the Cretan question.

THE WAR A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS. Dr. Dillon, in the Contemporary Review, says that the war continues .(is the result of a, tragedy • of errors, Italy being firmly convinced that Turkey is on her last legs, the Turks simila,rly being sure that Italy is disheartened and will shortly withdraw the decree of annexation. The only way he thinks peace might be : ce'nclijcjed wo.uld .be ,foi; Italy to Jim it .her'.annexation to the districts actually osqupied and held ,and Turkey would have to induce the Arabs to give a favorable hearing to Italy's modified proposals. Otherwise, even if Italy and Turkey came to terms, the Arabs would still fight 011. A Moslem wedge of land ceded by the Berlin Treaty to Montenegro still remains in the hands of the Moslems, they refusing to acquiesce and saying, "Let Montenegro take us." So the Arabs may say, "Let Italy take us, if she can,"