68 ITALIAN COLONIES - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



the oasis from Cufra to Giarabub (i). The generally accepted average 

 area is a million sqnare kilometres. The breadth from east to west is about 

 1500 kilometres {2) and the length from north to south, measured from the 

 extreme points including Fezzan, 1150 kilometres. 



lyibya has no geographical unity. It is, as Reclus wrote^ composed 

 of various countries separated the one from the other by uninliabited and 

 even uninhabitable solitudes ; for the desert, or at least the stej^pes which 

 precede it, reaches to the coast of the Syrtis Major. The territory between 

 Cyrenaica on the east and the Gariana Mountains in the south of Tripoli 

 has characteristics both of the Mediterranean zore and of the Sahara, but 

 South Tripoli belongs wholly to the desert. This state of affairs is today 

 taken into account when L,ibya is divided into two great districts, Tripoli 

 and Cyrenaica. 



The southern frontier of Tripoli, properly so called, is marked by the 

 northern boundary of the high ftony plateau, known as Hammada el Homra, 

 in which vegetation ceases. To the west Tripoli stretches as a honioge- 

 iieous district as far as the beginning of the dunes of the Great Eastern Erg 

 and the Duirat Mountains, the natural limit of Gefara, which is crossed by 

 the Ouadi Mocta, the political frontier of Tunisia. To the east the apparent 

 natural frontier is the western shore of the Syrtis Major as far as Ouadi 

 Senisem, beyond which point the characteristics of the northern steppe 

 are lacking. Physically there are three regions in the district of Tripoli, 

 the coast, the plain or Gefala and the high plateau or Gebel. In a wide sense 

 Cyrenaica comprises all the territory which extends from the.Syrtis Major and 

 the Mediterranean coast on the north to the oases of Angila and Gialo on the 

 south an& to the Gulf of Solium on the east, that is from 190 to 25" longi- 

 tude and from 29° to 330 northern latitude. 



The population is estimated at between 900,000 and a million. 



B. Administrative Organization. - The administrative organization of 

 lyibya is principally based on the royal decree of 9 January 1913, no. 39, 

 which provided for the organization of government in T^ibya (3), and on the 

 royal decree of 15 January 1914, no. 35, which approved the political 

 administrative organization of Tripoli and Cyrenaica (4). In virtue of 

 these decrees Tripoli and Cyrenaica were formed into two separate gov- 

 ernments, each directed by a governor who also commands the land and 

 sea forces on the land and waters within his jurisdiction. He is nominated 

 by royal decree on the proposal of the Minister of the Colonies in concert 

 with the Minister of War, both of whom have been advised by the Council 

 of Ministers. He de|)ends immediately and exclusively on the Minister 

 of the Colonies, and he directs the colony's polic)'- and administration in 

 conformity with that minister's instructions. He may make rules of a 



(1) According to Annuario Statistico lialiano, 1914, the area of this is from one to one and 

 a half million square kilometres. 



(2) 1 kilometre = 1093.633 yards. 



(3) Gazetta Ufflciale d'Halia, 14 Februaiy 1913, No. 37. 



(4) Ibid ; 7 Febrxxary 1914, No. 31, 



