469 



Leading ARTICLES in the Reviews 



-tint 



TRIPOLI : 



II, Al iRAelluNS AND PrOSPFXTS. 



In the American Rcii'uw of Reviavs Mr. E. A. 

 I'owell recalls how in past times the mirage of 

 1 colonial empire in Tripoli has drawn in succession 

 I'hccnicians, Creeks. Romans, Vandals, By/antines, 

 .Arabs, Spaniards, and Turks, but of them all only 

 .\rabs and Turks remain. 



ONCIi UNDER THE STARS AND STUIPES. 



Mr. Powell recalls a fact that is little known 

 the United States once con- 

 ([uered Tripoli. About the 

 beginning of last century 

 the Pasha of Tripoli, then a 

 pirate stronghold, had actu- 

 ally levied systematic tribute 

 upon every seafaring nation 

 in the world. He de- 

 manded an increase in the 

 annual tribute of eighty odd 

 thousand dollars which the 

 United States had been 

 paying. Then the American 

 Consul handed him an 

 ultimatum ; an American 

 war fleet backed it up, and 

 a four years' war began. In 

 1803 the Tripolitans cj[)- 

 tured the frigate Phila- 

 delphia and enslaved her 

 crew. But a handful of 

 bluejackets under Decatur 

 recaptured and destroyed 

 thefrigate. Cleneral William 

 Eaton, soldier of fortune, 

 frontiersman and former 

 Consul at Tunis, recruited 

 at Alexandria a small army 

 of adventurous Americans, 

 forty Greeks, and a few- 

 squadrons of .Arab mercen- 

 aries, less than five hundred 

 men in all, and set out 

 across the desert with the 

 object of placing on the 



throne of Tripoli the reigning Pasha's exiled elder 

 brother, who had agreed to satisfy all the demands of 

 the United States. He covered the six hundred miles 

 m fifty days, took the city by storm, and raised the 

 .American 'flag over its citadel— the only tinde it 

 has ever floated over a fortification on this side of 

 the Atlantic. 



WONDEKllll.V FRLiriLI. SiUI.. 



The soil by the coa>t, where it has Ijeen irrigated, 

 is amazingly productive. From April to June it 

 yields almonds, apricots, and corn ; in July and 



August, peaches ; from July to September, vintages 

 of grapes equal to those of Sicily : from July to 

 September dates and olives ; November to April, 

 oranges ; early spring, Malta potatoes ; lemons at 

 almost any season of the year. It was once called 

 the " granary of Europe," and were the underground 

 waters utilised by artesian wells, what it has been 

 it might be again. It may be a new Italy, which the 

 patient toil of Italian agriculturists and many millions 

 of lire may make worth the having. The smells 

 of Tripoli make no one wish to visit it again. It 



was once the terminus of 

 the three historic trade 

 routes, but now French 

 and British enterprise to 

 the east and west have 

 diverted the large and 

 important caravan trade. 



Italy's real reasons. 



The hope of acquiring 

 Tripoli was the legacy of 

 Crispi to his people. There 

 are probably not two thou- 

 sand native-born Italians in 

 the whole of Tripolitania, 

 but the Jews there have 

 been induced to become 

 Italian subjects. Italy has 

 established her own post 

 offices and numerous 

 Italian schools have been 

 planted : — 



To those really conversant 

 with the situation, Italy's pre- 

 texts that the activities of her 

 subjects resident in Tripolitania 

 h.nl been interfered with, and 

 their lives and interests seriously 

 endangered, sound somewhat 

 hollow. To tell the truth, 

 Italians have had a freer rein in 

 the reycmy— and, incidentally, 

 liavc caused more trouble— than 

 any other people. Italy's real 

 reasons for the seizure of Tripoli- 

 tania have been two, and only 

 two: first, she wanted it, and 

 second, she could get it. 



[Il/us!ra:i rs B:ir.;^u. 



The New Italiaa Governor of Tripoli. 



The Governor, Admiral Itorca Ricci d'Olmo, is standiiit; 

 in the centre of the picture, which was obtained on the beach 

 at Tripoli. 



No 1-.A>V h>H BEFORE HER. 



Mr. Powell does not'e.vpect that Italy will have an 

 I asy time of it. He says : — 



It look France, with all the resources of a traine<l colonial 

 army at her command, thirty years' to pacify the .Vrabs ol 

 Algeria : it took I'.ngland ten years to conquer the Sud.-vn ; in 

 (li-rman .Vfrica, annexed more than a quarter of a century, the 

 inland tribes are not pacified yet ; our own costly and weary 

 <'xperience in the Philippines needs no recapitulation. 



Mr. Powell concludes by saying that the taking of 

 Tripolitania will prove in the end for the country's best 

 good. It is the means that is contemptible, not the end. 



