FIGHT AT TOBRUK.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 80, 3 April 1912, Page 7

FIGHT AT TOBRUK.

TURKS MAKE AN ATTACK. AT VARIOUS POINTS. " REPULSED BY ITALIAN ARTDLLERY. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright (Received April 3, 8.5 a.m.) ROME, 2nd April. Three thousand Turks attacked at various points the new forts being constructed at Tobruk, where there was severe fighting three weeks ago. The Italian artillery, compelled the Turks to retire. BLOCKADE OF LOHEIA AND KAMARAN. CABLE CUT. BRITISH STEAMER SEIZED. (Received April 3, 9 a.m.) PERIM, 2nd April. ' Tho Italians have notified that a j blockade has commenced of Loheia and Kamaran, in the Red Sea, off the Arabian coast. They have cut the cable between Kamaran and the mainland, and seized the British steamer Woodcock. A HARD TASK. General Caneva., Commander-m-Chief in Tripoli, recently visited Rome. The correspondent of the Italian journal Avant reports :-^- "When General Caneva came to Rome, at the invitation of the Government, to confer with thd- Premier, the Ministers of War, Foreign Affairs, and Marine, and the Chief of the General Staff; the disposition of the Cabinet towards the Commander-in-Chief of the Tripoli expedition was not over-warm. "They have always had confidence in the strategic ability of the general and a high estimate of his political sagacity, but they thought that he combined these fine qualities with an excessive slowness and und,ue caution. In a word, the Government thought the general's tactics far too dilatory. "In the very first interview that the general had with the leading personages of the Cabinet in Rome, the following question was plainly and squarely put to hini : — Are you in a position, with the means now at your disposal, and with all the other means which you might ask for, and which the Government would not hesitate to give — are you in a position to provide that unequivocal and decisive victory of which 'Italy i» in need if it is to impose an unconditional peace upon Turkey? "General Caneva did not hesitate to give the resolute answer ' No.' He said finally : — I cannot give to the nation that victory which is essential if peace is to be imposed upon Turkey. All that I for my part can answer for is the 6low and gradual conquest of the whole territory o*l Tripoli and Cyrenaica. If you want a- brilliant success you must seek it elsewhere than in Libya, because in a war of an essentially colonial character such as that which has been entrusted to me, no army could obtain a brilliant success — not at this moment ; not m a month's time ; not in a year ; never ! Tne correspondent adds : — " I do not know, and if I knew I would not say, what were the arguments used by General Caneva to demonstrate the soundness of his thesis. But it is certain that he firmly held to his belief in the absolute inopportuneness of all advance into the interior in search and pursuit of an enemy that knows how to put himself out of reach by reason of his great | mobility." j