HORRORS OF TRIPOLI.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14325, 10 April 1912, Page 6

HORRORS OF TRIPOLI.

ITALY'S INDICTMENT.

ALLEGED TURKISH ATROCITIES

(FROM OCR owx corresvondext). LONDON, .-March 1

The Italian Government has .now issued a memorandum to the Powers detailing tho nlleged atrocities committed by tho Arab-Turks in the fighting outside Tripoli in October. The step has been .taken, .so. the Italian Government declares, in the interests of civilisation, and documents proving the outrages have also been communicated to the Powers.

The Commander of the 93rd Infantry Regiment states that in a reconnaissance made beyond the trenches on November 7th and Bth they discovered five bodies completely naked, three being horribly decapitated.' The commander of the 3rd battalion of tho same' regiment discovered the decapitated body of an Italian soldier on November 26th. The commander of the Bth company of the same regiment found at the'same time the bodies of eight Italian soldiers, all mutilated'and covered with enormous wounds. An almost unpunishable report from Colonel Fara commanding tho 11th Bensagliers, is next summarised. He speaks of his troops having found corpses of their comrades stripped, their hands tied-behind thorn. and the bodies dreadfully cut; of others horribly mutilated, their skulls smashed by blows of the butt-end of rifles, and their bodies riddled with stabs. The commanding officer of the sth Company of this regiment -communicate:.' eyewitnesses' testimony that the survivors of tho .battle of October 23rd saw during the engagement the Arab-Turks hurl themselves on a dying Lieuteuant and several others of the. wounded, atid beat them savagely about the head and afterwards strip and rob them.'.

Other witnesses tell of indescribable scenes—a . full ' corporal, mortally wounded, stripped and stabbed fourteen times when he was nothing more than a corpse;, a lieutenant, also mortally struck, finished off with rifle shots and blows from a spade and then dragged along theground and stripped. The Oth Company furnished a "fearful list" of bodies that had been identified. Parts of tho body had been cut from ono which bore numerous .stab wounds and had. one eye torn out; another body was . found with the throat cut. ears cut off, and otherwise horribly mutilated. Others, also mutilated in. various ways, I>ore evident traces of the tortures they had undergone. The officers of the 9th Company discovered tho bodies 0f.27 naked Borsagliers, covered with large and deep wounds.' inflicted by blows after death, and in many cases mutilated. "A Bcrsaglier.' who miraculously escaped from the hands of the enemy,'' says the report, "declares that he saw Arab women smashing the heads of the wounded with largo stones; and, after having stripped them of their clothing and boots, they mutilated the corpses." Firing on the Red Cross flag is alleged, and in one case it is declared that knife stabs were made through the Red Cross armlet worn by an ambulance attendant. The memorandum further says that it is now shown by the numerous proofs gathered by tho Italian headquarters in Tripoli that the use of expanding bullets is common among Arab-Turks.

'•These are the painful facts," concludes the memorandum, "that not only Italy, but the whole of humanity deplores to-day. The Italian people, who have had to submit to the opprobrium of them, denounces them now to universal reprobation—the only vengeance worthy of its martyrs and of its civilisation." Accompanying the report are reproductions.of si*, photographs of tho mutilated remains of .Italian soldiers.