APPROACHES TO ARAB STATES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27047, 23 May 1953, Page 2

APPROACHES TO ARAB STATES

ITALY SEEKS CLOSER RELATIONS

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE (From a Reuter Co ”' Mpon<l Italian statesmen and traders are planning to offer the . Arab countries an alternative to the influence of the Great Powers by helping them as a "disinterested ally.” As part of their programme they have invited representatives of eight Arab States to a Mediterranean Congress at Bari towards the end of June. Delegates from Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Lebanon will meet there to discuss the development of trade between themselves and Italy. Italian economists belive that their country can do much to modernise backward Arab nations by exchanging technical equipment for basic raw materials, such as oil. Similarly politicians believe that Italian influence can help them in their nationalist growth. There la also the cold economic fact that the Arab States supplied 29 per cent, of Italy s crude oil in 1952, exports worth about £54,265,625. But the Arabs remember a time when the Italians preferred conquest to courtship, and they are diffident about the presence of Europeans on their territory, whether as soldiers or traders. Now that Italy no longer has an empire in Africa, and has abandoned all colonial ambitions, she feels more confident of assuring the Arab States of her good faith. Britain and France, after decades of rivalry in the Middle East, finally settled on spheres of influence by the end of the nineteenth century. Italy began her African adventures about that time, but was too late as far as exploitable colonial wealth was concerned. Britain protected her trade routes to India and the East by sitting astride the Suez Canal, and France, a shareholder in the Canal which a Frenchman had conceived, developed territories on the other side of the Sahara. Prestige Empire Colonial ambtttons and commercial exploitation were common to all three countries, but there was one factor in Italy’s position that the other two did not share. Theirs were commercial empires, acquired to make wealthy nations wealthier through the Investment of surplus capital. Italy’s was a presitge empire. She could not hope to get much back except esparto grass from Libya, but her vast North African territories could absorb many colonists and support them at a level at least as high as they had known In their home country. For this reason, the Italian colonisation of Libya was a success. Though it could never restore Libya to its former status as the granary of ancient Rome, the hard work of Italian farmers on irrigation projects produced a flourishing colony of--250,000. All but 45,000 have since returned embittered to Italy, and many are still unemployed. They add to the constant Italian headache of overpopulation and an enormous birth-rate. The over-population of the country in 1952 was estimated at 5,000,000. Italy also has 2,000,000 unemployed, many of them young technicians and skilled workers, whose energies might well be used in the development of the Arab States, where qualified technicians are at a premium. Italian businessmen have already begun commercial penetration of Arab territories, tendering for construction projects, and negotiating trade agreements, An Italian firm recently obtained a contract in competition with foreign companies to build a thermo-electric centre in Damascus. The activities of Italian oil companies in the Persian oil dispute are another symptom of the movement These activities are not officially recognised by the Italian Government.

It was an Italian, Mr Raimondo Pacciardi, the Defence Minister, whose mission made the first West European contact with the Government of General Naguib in Egypt early this year. His visit was quickly followed by a trade mission from Italy. Egypt is the only Arab Stal ( e whose exports to Italy come near to balancing her imports. The others offer a good market for Italian goods, but at present little in return except oil Fear »f Soviet Age-old differences between Catholic Italy and Islam are forgotten in the common fear of Soviet materialism. Those who most want closer co-opera-tion between Italy and the Arab States prefer to think less in terms of Christian and more of Mediterranean culture, in which Islam has played an important historical part. The Italians staged a Mediterranean congress in Sicily in March, at which all the countries of the Mediterranean sgaboard discussed common problems. Sicily, the Italians claimed, was not only the geographical centre of the Mediterranean, but the frontier of three cultural zones, Western, Middle Eastern, and African. For that reason an Itatlian delegate suggested the establishment of a Mediterranean college at Palermo. This idea was welcomed by the Arabs. Those responsible for the new Italian movement, which claims to be nonimperialistic, see themselves as guides whose mission it is to bring about a revolution in Arab life with the full consent and co-operation of the Arabs themselves. This revolution would be economic, political and technological. Deprived of their empire, the Italians hope to return to leadership in the Mediterranean. It is now for the Arab States to decide whether that leadership would be only another form of imperialism maintained by capital investment in their countries, or a genuine alternative to the imperialism hat they say the West practises and the East would like to impose.