ITALY’S SETTLEMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1939, Page 10

ITALY’S SETTLEMENTS

ON AFRICAN COAST

Italy is now launched upon the largest scheme of organised colonial migration ever attempted by any nation. Within the next four years more than 100.000 peasants, scratching a bare living from the hillsides and plains of the homeland, will have been sent to found a new Mediterranean nation on Italy’s “fourth shore’’ — the old Roman provinces of Cyrenaica and Tripoli (writes Martin Moore, in the London “Daily Telegraph”). By a single, stroke of policy, Italy intends to achieve in a few years, what other colonial nations, with much more promising territories, have done only in generations of largely haphazard and unassisted migration.

1 have just watched the first instalment of this policy carried into effect. From Genoa 1 travelled with a convoy of 20.000 emigrants, followed the trains of military lorries which carried them across the desert to the new villages built for them, saw them installed in their brand-new and completely furnished houses, watched them begin work on the land. This mass migration was carried out with a parade and showmanship which reminded me of Soviet, Russian methods. But the flag-waving and the band-playing hid no discoverable flaws in the elaborate organisation for placing more than 1.800 families on farms sometimes 100 miles from the nearest town. The whole movement was carried out to a pre-determined timetable, with military efficiency—and indeed. largely by the military. Success depends on three factors: the Fascist Government, the calibre of the emigrant farmers and the land which they must cultivate. What, f saw in Libya left no doubt that Mar-

sli.il Balbo. the Governor-General, is carrying out Hie Government's part with the utmost energy and efficiency. Conversations with many of the peasants suggested that they have entered their new life in the spirit most likely to ensure success; they are stolid and undemonstrative, resolute rather than flushed with extravagant hopes. What of the land from which they have to make a living and repay eventually the Government’s settlement loans?

Along this 1,250-iniles of coastline the character of the soil varies so greatly that it is impossible to pass a single judgment. Experimental farms at all the centres now being colonised have proved that the desert can be made to blossom—if not like a showbench rose at any rate with a fertility that is astonishing in comparison with the arid bleakness on every side. Some striking results arc already manifest, and Italy is convinced that this land will eventually amply repay the money showered upon if.

NEW CENTRES 1. Ten new centres have been colonised in the past month. The land on which they stand—and the method of 1 farming adopted—varies from place Io place. hut to the mil ward view ail the villages are practically identical. In the centre, grouped around a spacious square are a church. Fascist political ami cultural headquarters, school, post-office, market, co-opera-tive store and. in the larger villages, a doctor’s house. This represents the only communal life which most of the 'colonists will know, Thai essential feature of every Italian town, the cafe and wine restaurant, is absent from ihe Libyan scheme of life. I’’or this model'll village is unlike 1 "iy "I In.i- < <>m e|Hi<in of a village. Ofcu its area is greater than that of

many industrial towns in other countries. From the upper windows of the Fascist headquarters one can see the little white houses stretching away Io the horizon, sometimes in pairs, but generally singly, like an inlinitely extended garden suburb. Every building, from cottage to church, is in white concrete. After the first shock of surprise, the modernistic and harmonious design is pleasing. The church, in all villages

a vast and lofty building, presents the biggest architectural innovation. In some cases it could be only identified from outside as a church by the small cross over the doorway. The colonists’ own homes involve no such break with tradition. For many of them the transition is one from squalor to comparative luxury. Single-storeyed and flat-roofed, each has four large rooms—a kitchen liv-ing-room, a bedroom for husband and wife, one for the boys and another for the girls. Since the smallest immigrant families number eight, and many ten or more, these dwellings are over-crowd-ed by English standards. But. they are spacious by Italian peasants’ standards, and the rooms are twice as large and lofty as those of an English house. Each house has an arched porch in front, which provides something like an additional living-room. Behind are stables and farm buildings, all of the same solid construction. These homesteads have cost about £6Oll apiece to build. Cement and skilled labour had Io be imported from Italy.

“Moving-in.” as | saw it. was reduced to its simplest. Each of the 1.800 families, deposited at its frontdoor from an army lorry, found furniture in its place, food for four days on the kitchen table, beds made, wafer drawn, and even matches by the hearth.

CONTRAST IN FARMS

Individual farms vary in size from 35 to 125 acres. The whole colonisation scheme depends upon water, and the quantity available has governed the size of the farms. Where full irrigation permits of intensive cultivation, holdings are small. The largest farms

tire in regions where rainfall is scarce and irrigation impossible; here olives and almonds will be the main crops. Of intermediate size are holdings where water supply is limited and onlypart of the land can be irrigated, the

remainder being dry-farmed. The 125acre farms will later be divided between two families, but, for the first years after planting, their yield will not. be sufficient for more than one household.

Experimental farms and a few holdings now being worked by older colonists show the new immigrants what they may expect from their land. The most impressive results I saw anywhere in Libya w'ere at the villages of Gioda. and Crispi. near Misurata. Less than 18 months ago a few test farms were cut out of the scrub-covered desert. Thanks to abundant water from artesian wells, these are now flourishing green oases. Vines have borne grapes the first year after planting: olive, orange and almond trees are

making good progress; American cot ton. planted experimentally, appoint well suited to iho situation; I saw

cauliflowers, potatoes, artichokes am even a banana clump, while this yearu grain harvest is reported to have beet good.

Least encouraging in appearance tire the farms tit Olivcti and Bianchi, west of Tripoli, where the soil seems mere sand. Screens of eucalyptus and mimosa tire making good growth, and olives also do well; but. ground crops, walled off in little square beds for irrigation, look to be making only strugglin'' progress and the vines are poor in comparison with those of Crispi.

However, on the evidence of a colonist established three, years ago. it is pos- '■ sible to make ends meet even on this ■unpromising land. Here. also, new I wells supply plenty of water. ' Dry-farming, without benefit of irrigation. is being carried on in pleasant, undulating country at Breviglieri, between Tripoli ami Misurai.a, and on the high plateau,of Cyrenaica. Iji both these areas I saw olives, almonds and vines, to al] appearance vigorous and healthy. About Cyrenaica’s potential fruitfulness there need be no speculation: it was one of the Roman Em-

pire s granaries. Such is the land which the new colonists are taking over, and such are the crops they may expect it to yield. But not for 20 or even 25 years will tile majority of them enter into full ownership of their farms. For the present they are working as mere daylabourers of the Colonisation Board, receiving wages averaging EG/10/monthly per family, to meet their immediate needs. After a short preliminary period they will become the Board’s tenant farmers under the crop-sharing system common in Italy. Half the value of the farm’s output belongs to the colonist, half to the Board. Against the. colonist’s share is debited the money which the Board will continue to advance him to cover household ex-

penses and buy s’eed. I This crop-sharing period lasts for live years. Then the colonist enters into definite ownership of his farm, and begins to buy it from the Board on the. instalment plan. Interest charged is only two per cent. On an average. th<? instalments will be spread over 20 years: the period may be extended to 25 years, or a hard-working

family with productive land may repay in a considerably shorter time. There is personality and drive behind this scheme —the personality and drive of Marsha] Balbo. He himself attributes the. impulse to the Duce. but no one in Libya doubts who Ims drawn up the plan and carried it out. "I mean to make a big thing of this." the Governor said to me. If military efficiency, unflagging enthusiasm ami grasp of detail can do it. he will succeed.