ITALY'S TASK IN AFRICA

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14836, 13 November 1911, Page 7

ITALY'S TASK IN AFRICA

OUTRAGES BY TUNIS ARABS.

RIOTING - AND SLAUGHTER.

TWO MEN BEATEN TO DEATH. By Telegraph.—Press Association.— Tunis, November 11. The recent rising of Arabs here, which was participated in by the women, spread like wildfire, and there were soon thousands of rioters. The Zouaves were called out to quell the rising and a conflict ensued. Meanwhile the Arabs killed all the Italians they could find. Two Italians were mercilessly beaten to death, a child was slaughtered on its mother's lap, whilst houses were forced open and their occupants butchered. The bodies of 30 Arabs and 24 Italians were subsequently found, as well as a great number of wounded. (Received November 13. 1 a.m.) Tunis, November 12. Eleven hundred arrests have been made in connection with the recent rioting. FEVER STRICKEN TROOPS. I CHOLERA AND TYPHOID. Berlin, November 10. It is reported by the correspondent of the Frankfurter Zeitung that 200 deaths from cholera have occurred in the town of Tripoli. A hundred fresh cases are reported daily, while there are 50 deaths each day among the Italian troops. Typhoid fever is also spreading in the camps. ATTEMPT TO REGAIN A FORT THE TURKS REPULSED (Received November 12, 5.5 p.m.) Tripoli, November 11. The Turks, after seven hours' desperate attempts to recover Fort Hamidieh, were repulsed.

"HORNET'S NEST FOR ITALY." VIEWS OF DR. KUJDI. Dr. Karl Kumrn, the eminent explorer, an authority on South Africa, who is at present visiting Auckland, gave 'some interesting views on the war in Tripoli to a Herald reporter yesterday. He stated that he was afraid that Italy had put her hand into a hornet's nest. " The Mahometans of Tripoli," ho said, " belong to the most fanatical sec* in the Moslem world. It is a common thing there for a European visiting the country to be called ' the son of a dog,' or a ' European pig' by these Mahomedans. The master may be as ignorant as the donkey he drives, and be clad in filthy rags, yet he despises the European, calls him an ' infidel,' and is quite capable of expectorating upon him, if he can; do eo with impunity. For European ladies to travel in Tripoli is an utter impossibility."

The severest fighting that will probably take place during the next few weeks or months if the Arabs have enough ammunition, to which point Dr. Kumm would put a query, will probably be in the mountains of Grurian. A very steep ascent into these mountains impracticable for field guns, and almost, so for cavalry is well defended by an old fortress called Kasr Grurian. In the valleys of these mountains are some olive groves, the remains of once rich gardens. The population which lives south of the mountains, to protect themselves against the desert robbers, have to build underground villages consisting of strange troglodytic dwellings. "I have repeatedly been asked during the last few weeks," said Dr. Kumm, " whether the fighting in Tripoli will lead to a general Moslem rising in North Central Africa—l mean lead to what is called a ' Jehad of 'holy war.' Well, I don't think so. Had this trouble arisen, say, 10 or 20 years hence, after the fighting tribes of the North African Ironstone Plateau have been won over to Moslemism, and have become imbued with the. spirit of Moslem fanaticism, such a rising would have been probable, and, indeed, may yet come about. Our leading geographers of today believe that the last great religious war that will ever take place will he fought out in Africa between the Crescent and the Cross. All I can say is that war of any kind is terrible, but a religious war is awful."