THE CASE FOR ITALY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12840, 11 December 1911, Page 6

THE CASE FOR ITALY.

AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST'S

PICTURE

Signor Marcello Prati, an Italian journalist, in London, writes to the " Daily Chronicle" in defence of Italy's invasion of Tripoli. " Once upon a time," he says, "Tripoli was under the Turkish rule. Plenty of apathy, injustice, fanaticism, starvation and slavery were there, together with other rather Turkish things, which were as proved a-s the sunlight. Meanwhile, in front of thoso sluggish shores all Europe grew up wonderfully, and her finest men dreamt of bringing Northern Africa also up to the same standard. Britishers in TCgypt built royally; Cairo became a brilliant Western metropolis; and corn and cotton waved among the English dams where the Nile mud was naked desert before. Great things did Frenchmen, too, in Tunis and Algeria. Their young towns glittered by'the sea, nicer than Marseilles, livelier than" Genio. All this was piracy, then? It was English and French history-making. Better still, it was the beginning of a new Mediterranean history.

" Tripoli alone^ —Franco-British hands having already got hold of the Shereefian Empire—remained a dead, hopeless spot. The glory of Cyrenaica's olives rustled lonely and useless over its sea. For everything there was kept from going by the shadow of the 'Sick Man,' who confessed his sickness. But might it have lasted for a long time still? No, Turkey's fate in Tripoli was to bo driven'off. Europe wanted to clear her old African roads. And the Half-Moon ni Tripoli was simply a barrier against iho working out of civilisation's dearscheme—that of restoring the North African coasts, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, to the full swing of their ancient splendour, with harbours and cities as busy as Western hives. The Turks — once fierce fighters, and now knocking for help at all Europe's shut doors, and nutting their heart at auction even before this England whom they deceived miserably—the Turks to-day feign to have forgotten it. Bufrthey remember. When they knew the Franco-British hungriness upon Tripoli's hinterland, they began to cry and to, call Germany. Immediately, however, Italy knew it, too, and went to France and England. 'You civilised pirates, please keen olf my grass,' said she. 'Tripoli is mine by the 1903 agreement. I'll go there as soon as I am ready. Do what you liko in Egypt, Morocco and Congo j I don't care. But in Tripoli I'll hoist my flagi' And Franco and England,, being fair nations, quietly retired and waited for events.

"The Italian race, being still great m children-making, a Biblical business which means soundness and strength. Italy felt forced to make up her mind at last, and get a vent for them as soon a3 possible, and* at any price. Tripoli was the last free one on the Mediterranean. Keeping away from it some months longer, our nation would have marched toward a future of begging. It was last spring that Italy's indecision began to drop fast. Germany heard of it, loyally admitted our claims/ and pulled home her claws. All the other Powers heard of it, too, and—while arranging their business in MorocpOj Congo and elsewhere-—they waited for an instant Italian sailing. Our Foreign Secretary, as early as June 21, made it understood in full Parliament, neatly warning Turkey of what was going to happen. Yet Turkey went on sneer- : ing, boasting and asking Germany to Tripoli instead. What followed is merely a matter of course. August brought war in sight; September declared it; October saw the Italian flag waving over Tripoli. And—note it—no Power uttered a single word about this at all. Because every Power 'knew' and agreed. Italy acted prudently. She must have had assurances. The very facts -aro telling so. Only she did not trouble about the world's opinion. How could she have dreamt of so much fuss coming exactly from those Germans who went to Agadir—those Austriaiis who ate up Bosnia-Herzegovina violating a written treaty—those English who remembered their Kimberley and Zambesi affairs of 1871 and 1890—and those French who six years ago sent battleships and landed troops at Mitylene, and who just now have 30,000 soldiers in Fez? They fussed a lot, though. j

-" 'Look how smart sho is, after all!' the world begins to say just now. Tomorrow all the critics of yesterday will fairly acknowledge that Ithe baggage she took with her to Tripoli is" a providential one. For Italy does not land there only with machine guns. She carries other machines in her bag, machines to plough the forlorn fields and to rebuild the dead towns. She means civilisation. And that is all."