The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, OCTOBER 2nd. 1911. WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 40, 2 October 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, OCTOBER 2nd. 1911. WAR.

The unexpected has happened in the outbreak of actual hostilities between Italy and Turkey over the Tripoli question, and Italy has taken the oifensive. Tripoli, the last of the oversea dependencies owned by Turkey which were once a part of the great Ottoman Empire, fell under Turkish rule in the sixteenth century, and, though, in 1714, the Arab population secured some measure of independence, the country was in 1835 proclaimed a Turkish vilayet. Some forty years later Benghazi (Barka), was placed under separate administration. The chief authority both civil and military in Tripoli (says the “Statesman’s Year Book”) is in cho hands of the governor-general or vali, under whom are (as in the other Turkish provinces) mutessarifs, kairnakams, and mudirs, with authority over subordinate governments, cantons, or districts, and communes respectively, Sheikhs have still authority over Arab tribes, and Berber assemblies still raise taxes. Benghazi has a mutessarif who is directly responsible to the Porte. Ail important? officials are Turks. The western frontier of Tripoli as far south as Ghadames was determined by France and Turkey in 1892, but the southern limit is still unsettled. The entire ■ area of these Turkish possessions, injiuding Fczzan to the Tropic of Cancer, is estimated at about 406,000 square miles, with a population of from 800,000 to 1,300,000, about twelfths of the inhabitants being in Benghazi. The population is mostly Berber, but Jews aro numerous. The civil European population numbers 5000 or 6000, mostly Maltese and

Italians; practically there are no Turkish settlers. Arabic is generally spoken, but Turkish ,is the official language. Until recently the province contained the headquarters (Jerboub) of the Mohammedan sect, of the Senussiyeh. The -principal towns aro on the coast, Tripoli, the capital of the vilayet, with over 30,000 inhabitants, Benghazi with 35,000, Derna and Kboms; inland are the caravan oalting-places Ghadames, Murzuk, and Ghat. Tripoli is occupied by about. 10,000 Turkish troops. There was a body called the Kologhlu, consisting of several thousand of men resident about the capital who enjoyed certain privileges in return for military ser-

vices which had become merely nominal, but this force has been disbanded. The Province is at present, exempt from conscription, hut a system is sought to he introduced for local defence, the levies to serve for short periods and to enjoy certain privileges. 4 he products of Tripoli aro only agricultural and scanty. Bailey (the chief food of the people) arc! wheat are grown; the fruits arc dates, olives, oranges, and lemons; esparto grass and sponges aro exported; and cattle and sheep aro bred. Imports at Benghazi, 1908, £330,000; exports, £320,000. There is a considerable caravan trade •between Benghazi and V/adai nd between ’Tripoli and Central

Sudan, when tlio routes are free from raiders. An important article of trade is ostrich feathers, which are brought overland from Central Africa and exported to Paris and London

from Tripoli to the value of £IO,OOO annually, and £6OOO from Benghazi. The principal means of coinmnnicauoa inland are tire Caravans, which follow long frequented routes. Tripoli (town) is connected hy telegraph cable with Malta, and hy lines with Murr.uk (Ferrau) and Gabos (Tunis).