ITALY AS A COLONISER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 292, 23 September 1935, Page 8

ITALY AS A COLONISER

NO RUSH TO LIBYA. AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT In the. course of an article written last year on Italian policy in Liberia, the Rome correspondent cf the “Times “Vast improvements have already been made by the Italians throughout Libya. The port of Tripoli is now well equipped and is being further improved ; the difficult task of endowing Bengazi with an adequate port is well under wav. If railway construction has lagged; hundred sof miles of good roads have been built in every direction, and schools,. hospitals and banks have been established. Experimental farms have been started, both for the raising of livestock and for the cultivation.of appropriate cereals. “The Italian press frequently writes as though Libya will shortly be capable of supporting many millions of settlers, whereas the best local opinion regards a white population of half a million as the probable limit. The problem in any case is not an immediate urgency. The total white population of Libya is about 50,000 and of these somo 20 000 are living in Tripoli itself, and some 13,000 in Bengazi. Even if it be granted that the total Tripolitaman area of 350,000 square miles, a vast proportion is sandy and rocky desert, still, a few hundred thousand acres taken up for agriculture do not make a. very striking illustration of the Italian colonising spirit.” ' Possibly Mussolini intends to icplj for the' colonial expansion of the Italian people more through military occupation than voluntary migration. By a Royal Decree of September last, it was decided to institute in the colonies of Tripclitania and Cyrenaica. two agricultural societies which will undertake the development of suitable Crown Lands, afterwards to be distributed in small holdings to officers and men of those militia battalions permanently on duty in Libya. This decree has a twofold object. Not only will it encourage the development of suitable lands, but also mark the appreciation of the Government for the scivices rendered by the Black Shirts. It would appear that the officers and men will acquire the rights of ownership after they have worked gratis for at least three years upon the development of the land, this work to be executed by' them simultaneously with and in addition to their ordinary military obligations.