APPENDIX V 

 THE ITALIAN MASSACRE OF ARAB PEASANTRY IN TRIPOLI 



Mr. Blunt's Letter to Mr. William Stead 



Dear Mr. Stead, 



I am, of course, in complete — indeed, in violent — sympathy with all 

 you say in denunciation of the Italian raid, and I entirely agree with you 

 that a strait waistcoat must be applied, and applied at once. I go even 

 farther than you do, knowing how absolutely destructive of their domestic 

 and moral life such a government as modern Italy would impose on the 

 Arabs of Tripoli would be. The modern Italian has divested himself of all 

 restraint, moral or religious. He has cast off his mediaeval beliefs and, 

 apart from his still remaining superstitions, acknowledges no principle we 

 in England connect with the name of Christianity. The Italian of the 

 South especially, to establish whom as colonist the raid has been devised, 

 is an utterly depraved being. His establishment in North Africa would 

 mean the establishment of the drink shop, the brothel, and the gambling 

 hell. It is against these, and in defence of their domestic life far more 

 than against dogmatic Christianity that the Mahommedans of Tripoli are 

 fighting. There need be no doubt as to which side in the present quarrel 

 represents the cause of God and which of the Devil. 



In all this I am sure that your view and mine are pfetty much the same. 

 What I have, however, a doubt about in your programme is the efficacy 

 of the means you propose for putting an end to the war and defeating 

 the proposed iniquity. I cannot think that there is the smallest chance at 

 the present stage of the affair of an appeal to arbitration being listened to, 

 and something much stronger than argument is needed to apply what you 

 call the strait waistcoat on the wrong-doer. The Italian fleet is cruising 

 loose in the Mediterranean and is threatening new murders everywhere 

 among the sea-coast towns and villages of the Ottoman Empire. What is 

 wanted now, and at once, is not a court of law to settle where the right 

 and the wrong is, but a policeman to arrest the disturber of the peace. 

 The Hague Tribunal, though excellent as a Court of Appeal, has no execu- 

 tive authority. Some Power stronger at sea than the Italian must be per- 

 suaded or forced by agitation to intervene and insist upon an evacuation 

 of the invaded territory. Then, if you will, we can go to The Hague for a 

 final settlement. 



If you agree with me in this, as the right order of procedure, I would 

 suggest that the first point to determine at your meeting on Tuesday will 

 be which of the Great Powers of Europe is in the best position to apply 

 the needed force, and which can best be acted upon and constrained to 



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