PEACE PROPOSALS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1912, Page 7

PEACE PROPOSALS

TURCO-ITALIAN WAR. By Telegt»Bh.—PreK(» Awopiatjoi}.— CopyriKhi. COWrAdSTINppLE, Sept. The Porte us considering ft prppqaal to end £he war by the nialntenance' of the Sultan's Buzerainity thrqugli a Turkish Pasha in Tripoli for tt\e hdministratipn of the Moslem pious foundations ai^d religious courts, leaving thq rest of the administration to the Italians and^rabs. [upth Slatqs (remarked The Tjmes; pn the loth of last month) have the strongest possible ground? fpr wishing to end the war. |t has laste4 very much longer than the Itejians' expected, and it might drag on iti a desultory shape for an indp^nite period were it not ended by negotiations. Apart from the expenditure which its prolongation in the interior qf Tripoli must involve, Jt^ly, as a Eurppe^n and Mediterrandan power, cannot care to have a lame part of her effective forces on land and sea |qcked up in her African venture- Circumstances might easily qrise of more than one character, and ih more than one quarter, in which she wonld desire her dipjoriiacy to play an ap(,|ye part, and its ability, like that ol all diplomapy, tfi speak; wiiji authority in ftem woujc} be ip pj-qportjon tP the available naval and military strength behind it. Italy is not hostile on principle to the Ottoman Empire. She conceives that she had grounds of complaint against Turkey Which entitle^ her to retain African provinces she has in» vaded, but shedpes not desive, an.d cannpt in her own clear' interests desire, to see the wl^ole Eastern questiqn opened by insurrection in Euvoweftti Turkey and its consequences'. That would not be to hey advantage, and she knows it. The way in >vhich she has pr^secut-ed the war has proved her reluctance to bring on a conflagration which might bring that Ernpiro to ruin. She clsgs to the old policy of tho European Concert and the integrity of the Ottoman Knipive— except, naturally, as applied to that portibn she has annexed. If the reasons which should make Italy ready to conclude an acceptable peace are strong, those which should move Turkey to do so seem irieommv'ably stronger. In the field she has done enough, and more than enough, for honour. ' That is acknowledged by ajl. Bhe cannot reasonably hope to reap material advantages of any sort hy con.tiriuing the war. She cannot reinforce her troops, and they cannot drive out the Italians. All that ?he could hope for in the most favourable circumstances would be to impede and retard. "then* inevitable qdvance.l