TURKO-ITALIAN WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13528, 9 November 1911, Page 5

TURKO-ITALIAN WAR.

THE OASIS MASSACRE. Italian Barbarities. Some Shocking Scenes. Press Association. —Telegraph.—Copyngnt. MALTA, November 8. Mr. MacCullagh, the war correspondent, states' that parties of Italians, with revolvers in hand, marched literally drunk with blood. Their faces were flushed, and their eyes bloodshot, and there was complete loss of self-control. They yelled loudly when their victims fell. The captain photographed successive scenes. Volleys were delayed to enable him to focus his camera. In one cash a detachment was executing 50 Arabs, including children aged 10, when they suddenly heard shots fired. The executioners wore thrown into a panic, and left the prisoners roped together. AH remained silent in bent, attitudes while the executioners exchanged fire with* the supposed attackers, until they found the shots were really from another body of Italians. Such exchange.of shots were frequent. The blood-crazed fiends : were unable to distinguish friends from fops. Afterwards, the Arabs were forced into a hut, where they were, shot one, by one as they passed the door. The floor was an awful spectacle of tangled bodies intertwined in agony. When‘the Arabs were seen to move, the captain of ;tho escort began revolver practice, shooting ah the quivering limbs. He joked and induced the other officers to join.

ALLEGED ARAB ATROCITIES. A Lurid Version, ROME. November 8. ; The censorship has been relaxed to enable the publication of the Italian version of the so-called massacres. The correspondent of the Corriere d’ltalia gives a 1 lurid version of the Arab atrocities. He states that he visited a prison where an Arab was awaiting trial. The Arab boasted that he had stabbed four Bcrsaglieri, afterwards eating the smoking flesh. ' The correspondent adds that Red Cross stretcher-bearers'" and .soldiers who : were burying Arabs were continually shot. One wounded. Bersaglieri was crucified. ; , ~5 RIOT AT TUNIS. Arabs Attack Surveyors, Received November 9, 9.15 a.m. TUNIS, November 8.. Owing' to the municipality fixing the limits for the Arab cemetery, thousands of Arabs attacked the suveyors. The police' and soldiers were summoned. Fifteen Arabs and four Italians were killed in the riot. • . NEWS FROM BENGHAZI. . • . TRIPOLI, November, 8. . It is officially stated that the Turks and Arabs outside of • Benghazi, are concen-. trated at El Kabra, a distance of 60 miles. ■ ; The Italians:-in< Benghazi made, a reconnaissance and seized a largo quantity of ammunition and some cannon abandoned by the Turks. ITALIAN REINFORCEMENTS LAND, ~i Tha Oasls Regained. : Dashlng Work by New General, TURKS COMPLETELY SURPRISED. Received November 9j' 8.5 a.m. MALTA, November 8. Directly General Frugoni landed on, Monday with 15,000 Italian reinforcements lie resolved on a sally with a view to regaining the oasis. The Turks and Arabs at the time were attacking the trenches east of the town.' The- scheme was carried out with admirable rapidity and energy. The outpost advanced along the sea front in a formation resembling 1 huge. pincers and thrust at the oasis. The Turks, who .wore completely ■ sur-' prised, made a determined resistance for two hours, but were driven from the interior of the oasis by the Grenadiers, whose charge was covered by the field battery near Hamadich. THE OASIS MASSACRE, Another Account. 1 TAICHAU, November 8. The Times’ correspondent who was lately at Tripoli says the Arabs, who were ensconced in a labyrinth of walled gardens, fig groves, and cactus alleyways, attacked the Bersaglieri in the rear, exterminating two companies which were manning the trenches in the front and rear. A frightful moment ensued when the Italians realised the possibility of 10,000 rifles rising in fanatical rage upon their rear. This explains ‘the Itaban blood lust and the miserable stampede. The Arabs had to he given a lesson of revolting and indiscriminate severity, but the retribution should have.been less like, an orgy and slaughter. TURKISH ISLANDS SEIZED. Rhodes and LesboS Occupied, TRIESTE, November 5. Italy has seized and occupied the islands of Rhodes and Lesbos. This action is highly offensive to Austria, and has caused considerable excitement here. Rhodes is an island of Turkey off the south-west coast of Asia Minor. Its area is about 550 square miles, and its population is estimated at from 30,000 to 35,000,. of whom about 8000 are Turks, 2500 Jews, and the remainder Greeks, with a few Franks. The island of -Lesbos, which is known also as Mytilerie, is in the Grecian Archipelago. and belongs to Turkey. It lies off the west coast of Asia' Minor Its area is in all 675 square mileSi : and' it is divided into two peninsulas by the Gulf of Eal- • loni. Sydney volunteers, SYDNEY, November 8. A number of local Italians have volunteered to fight the Turks. The Consul states that it is impossible to entertain the offers. : A prominent Turkish business man states that he is willing to pay the fares and provide, rifles and; ammunition to Turks who wish to fight for their country.