70 ITALIAN COI^ONIES - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



he judges opportune, also belong to this regional council. It is wholly re- 

 newed every three years. 



Not only does this council pronounce on business submitted to it in 

 conformity with laws and decrees, but it also advises on questions interest- 

 ing to the circondiirio which the commissioner deems it well to bring 

 before it. Clause II of the royal decree of 15 January 1914, no. 35, amply 

 treats of the organization of urban and rural districts. 



In the matter of the consultative agencies of the colony, of which we 

 have just spoken and with which chapter II of the first clause of the cited 

 decree is concerned, it should be noted that the royal decree no. 469, dated 

 II March 1917, lately made certain pertinent modifications (i). In accord- 

 ance with tliis last named decree native consultative committees for Tri- 

 poli and Cyrenaica and a central mixed consultative committee at the Mi- 

 nistry of the Colonies' at Rome were created. 



Other ordinances contributed to giving either at home or within the 

 colony a special structure to the governmental function^ suited to the par- 

 ticular exigencies it has to meet. 



Thus at the Ministry of the Colonies two consultative committees were 

 formed, one for administrative matters concerned with finance (royal de- 

 cree of II January 1914) and the other for public works (royal decree of 

 15 January 1914). - These comprise a small number of members, especially 

 official? of other great administrative or consultative bodies of the State. 

 As a pendant to the higher administrative committee of the Ministry'- of the 

 Colonies a council of government, under the presidency of the general se- 

 cretary and composed of the chiefs of local ofiices, has been constituted at 

 Tripoli and at Benghazi. 



Since the law of 25 February 1912 CvStablished Italian sovereignty over 

 lyibya it was necessary to make clear the jmisdictory relations of the pop- 

 ulation with the vState and regulate relations among subjects. The need 

 was met by the royal decree of 6 April 1913 which established, in harmony 

 with the principles of Mussulman public law, that all Mussulmans residing 

 in I/ibya are by presumption Italian subjects and that they can lose such 

 status only if they are freed from it by the government. The decree de- 

 termines who are to be considered subjects in virtue of birth, ties of blood 

 or marriage; and it admits subjects to service in the territorial and mari- 

 time colonial forces and in the colonial administration. The pertinent rules 

 were comprised in the royal decree of 6 February 1913 as to the civil service 

 of the State. 



Administratior of justice in Libya is regulated by the royal decree of 

 20 March 1913. 



Other decrees concern the police, the health service (2), the organiz- 

 ation of schools (3) and of public services and works (4), rules for the con- 



(i) Gazzetta Ufficiale, No. 72, 27 March 1917. 



(2) Royal Decree of 8 January, no. 15, as IQ14, to the sanitary orgauization of Tri- 

 poli and Cyrenaica. 



(3) do. of 15 January 1914, no. 56. 

 (4; do. of 15 January 1914, no. 76. 



