BRITAIN, ITALY AGREE ON FUTURE RULE OF AFRICAN COLONIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22942, 10 May 1949, Page 5

BRITAIN, ITALY AGREE ON FUTURE RULE OF AFRICAN COLONIES

(11.15 a.m.) LONDON, May 9. Britain and Italy have made an arrangement aimed at giving Italy United Nations’ trusteeship over Tripolitania within two years and giving Britain trusteeship of Cyrenaica.

The arrangement was reached between Mr. Ernest Bevin and Count Carlo Sforza, the Foreign Ministers of Britain and Italy respectively, in a private talk in London last Friday. The main points of the agreement are:—

The League countries have supported this proposal for the disposal of Eritrea. France and the United States are believed to have consistently favoured Tripolitania's return to Italy under some form of trusteeship. Reuter’s correspondent in Rome says the Italian public received the news of the agreement with mixed feelings. The return of Somaliland and, eventually, Tripolitania to Italian rule was regarded as a good thing and the loss of Ethiopia was accepted as an act of justice but the loss of Cyrenaica to Britain was considered bad. Public opinion in Italy has felt for some time that. Britain was the chief obstruction to Italian aspirations in North Africa. Count Sforza said: “We might have sought and gained a further postponement of any decision. But I do *ot think it would have helped. I do not tlunk we could have gained a better solution. We might have done worse.

1. Cyrenaica to be placed under British trusteeship. 2. Tripolitania to stay under British administration for two years with the assistance of an advisory council composed of British, American, French and Egyptian representatives as well as representatives of the local population. The territory would be placed under Italian trusteeship at the end of 19513. Fezzan to be placed under French trusteeship. 4. The eastern part of Eritrea to be ceded to Ethiopia outright. The Western part to be incorporated in the adjacent Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 5. Italian Somaliland to be put immediately under Italian trusteeship.