Italy And Tunisia

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 31 December 1938, Page 11

Italy And Tunisia

Notes on the News

A report from Loudon states that j Signor Mussolini, with German support, will get some sort of satisfaction in the Italian claims in Tunisia. “On November 30,” says George Martelli, “the Fascist Deputies assembled in the Italian Chamber rose lo their feet as one man and sliounted . •Tunis.’ This carefully prepared Spontaneous’ demonstration caused a sen- : sation in Europe, and specially in France, to whom Tunis happens to belong. And yet it came as a surprise i to nobody who is acquainted with the history of Tunisia, or who has watched Italian activity there in recent years. “Tunisia occupies a corner of the North African coast which is nearest | to Italy, and with which she has been ! connected ever since Rome sent an exI pedition against Carthage. . . . Separati ed from Sicily by only a hundred miles ; of water, Tunisia seemed destined both i by geography and bistory to become an Italian colony. After Italy at-

tained nationhood in the middle of the nineteenth century, she began to cast covetous eyes in Africa. and Tunis was the obvious objective.

“Unfortunately for her, the French steppes] in first. Encouraged by both England and Germany, in the year 1881, they marched into Tunisia from Algeria, and declared a Protectorate over the country. The Italians, who wanted to do the same, but were too slow, have never forgotten or forgiven. . . . Though Italy was bitterly disappointed at seeing Tunisia gobbled up by a rival, Italian migrants continued to arrive and settle there. Many of them came from Sicily, where conditions supplied a strong incentive to emigration. They were traders, peasants, artisans, and labourers. Some settled on the laud. . . . The result was that the Italians, though having no say in the Government of the Protectorate, soon formed a majority of the white population. Tunisia, while belonging to, or at least ruled by France, was more Italian than French.” France Takes Steps

“After the war the French realized the danger of the situation,” continues Martelli, “and began to take steps to remedy it. Special inducements were offered to foreigners to adopt French citizenship, and attempts were made to limit the Italian influence and to persuade the Italiaus to fuse with Ithe general body. These efforts were resisted by Fascism. . . . The control over the Italian community has never been relaxed. By dint partly of material bribes —free schools and hospitals, financial and so on—and partly of intensive propaganda, the Fascist officials have succeeded in completely regimenting the Italian colony, so that of its 100,000 members, it is true to say today that 00 per cent, take their orders unquestioningly from their Consul-General —in other words, from Mussolini.

“It is this solid bloc of aliens in their midst which constitutes the problem of the French authorities. It is a problem agravated by the numerical inferiority of their own nationals, for. though there are more than 100,000 registered French subjects in Tunisia,' only a fraction of these are French-born citizens. “In self-defence, the French administration has to forbid tbc wearing of Fascist uniforms, ban public demonstrations, limit immigration, and curtail the extension of Italian institutions. . . . Such measures, needless to say, are represented by the Fascists as acts of oppression, and the local Italian papers never let their readers forget that they are ‘groaning under a foreign yoke.’ .... “The French, of course, have no intention of giving up Tunis, any more than of surrendering Corsica or Nice. They know well why Mussolini wants it.”