HIS LAST STAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 288, 5 December 1931, Page 14

HIS LAST STAND.

CHIEF OF THE SENUSSI, WAR AGAINST INFIDEL INVADERS. STORY OF SHEIKH OMAR MOUHTAR (By LADY DRUMMOND-HAY.) In the Libyan hills and desert, far from the spotlight of the world Press and the pictorial reporters of the cinema, an epic struggle is taking place. Here on the edge of the Cyrenica section of Tripoli, in the fierce heat of an African sun and the biting chill of desert nights, Sheikh Omar Mouhtar, "Last of the Senussi/' temporal and spiritual head of that famous fanatical religious militant Arab tribe, Is making his "Last Stand."' Well past 80 years of age, with a white beard and dignity that the Prophet himself might have envied, his legs too weak and trembly to carry him, but still a fierce rider on camel or horse, the venerable Omar Mouhtar is endeavouring to halt the Juggernaut of civilisation as represented by Mussolini and Italy. Cruelly, but inexorably, civilisation with its machine guns, artillery, and aircraft is beating him down.

The story of Sheikh Omar Mouhtar in the Libyan region is the story of Abd-el-Krim, who for years defied the Spanish and the French in Northern Morocco. His is the* story, too, of Sultan Atrash, chieftain of the equally brave Druses in the mountains of Syria against the French.

Inexorable Civilisation. As newspaper correspondent, I was with General Primo de Rivera on the Spanish front against Abd-el-Krim's Riffian warriors, and later in Damascus in the fighting in and around that city between the French and the Druses and Syrian revolutionaries. The heroism and bravery of the Riffians and the Druses against overwhelming odds and modern weapons was sung around the world. The Press is too full these days of the troubles and anxieties that are disturbing every nation, to make a world hero of his struggle, no less heroic, and just as hopeless as those of Abd-el-Krim and Sultan Atrash. Our civilisation against the remaining remnants of the past is just as inexorable as will be the Nemesis on our own trail, already overtaking us. For nearly 20 years Italy has been fighting in North Africa to conquer the desert tribes, but more especially the Senussi. In 1912 Enver Bey, dashing Turkish officer, later Enver Pasha, Minister of War, largely influential in swinging Turkey into the war against the Allies, was one of the military leaders of the Senussi against the Italians. Officially there is no longer war in Italy's North African colony. ; Many of the tribesman have submitted to Rome's rule. The Senussi have been decimated, some have surrendered or are in concentration camp. The '"war" is now designated "police measures." A Price on His Head. "Sheikh Omar Mouhtar, his thousands of warriors who once swept across the desert on horses and camels shrunken to between 000 and 700 irreconcilables, is making his last stand. Against this little band of the Faithful the Italian Vice-Governor of Cyrenica, General Graziani, has at his command between 6000 and 8000 troops and desert police. Sheikh Omar has become an invisible enemy in the defiles and hills. Raids with the stealth, suddenness, and unexpectedness of the Pathans and other tribesmen on the North-west frontier in India, attest to the white-bearded sheikh's undying hatred of the Italians. Scattered, the Italian aircraft cannot locate them, lave no visible object to bomb. General Graziani is reported to have placed a reward of 200,000 lire on Sheikh Omar's head. The wives and children of his followers are behind barbed "wire in the Italian "dislocation camps." If a column of the Senussi are discovered by the Italians, they scatter and disappear like a mirage in the desert. Raids on small military detachments of Italians brought arms and ammunition. This has almost been stopped by counter measures, rendering Omar dependent upon the smuggling of munitions from Egypt through the desert. Italians' Barbed-wire BarrieT. Now the Italians have decided, to build a barbed-wire barrier from Solun on the Egyptian border at the coast to the Oasis of Djerbub. Thia barrier is to be nearly five feet high, about 25ft wide, and will stretch through the desert for 150 miles. Parallel with this barbed wire entanglement barrier is to be constructed an automobile road, along which fast military motor cars will speed. It will cost millions of lire. But in this "way it is hoped to shut off imports of arms, munitions, even reinforcements, from Egypt for Sheikh Omar, and eventually pacify that part of Cyrenica where Omar and Ms Faithful, trusting in God and Mohammed, are keeping up a war against the Infidel invaders.

As in the Grand Atlas of Southern Morocco, "where I "was in March this year, so here in the Djebel (mountains) of Cyrenica, adventure such as even the cinema has not imitated may still be found.—(A.A.N.S.)