58o 



The Review of Reviews. 



aiul withdiaw, the results would be catastrophic throughout 

 Africa and the Orient. The victorious expulsion of the 

 Italians from North Africa by the Turks, .\rabs, and Berbers 

 would quite probably be followed by a native rising against 

 British control in Egypt, by revolts against the French in 

 Tunis and in Morocco, by an aggressive attitude towards 

 Christians in Syria and Asia Minor, which would compel the 

 intervention of the Great I'owers, and by similar movements in 

 Nigeria, the Soudan, Arabia, Afghanistan, and India, such as 

 would tax severely the resources of the British nnd French 

 Empires. 



The moral of that is — although Sir Harry dare not 

 draw it — that, if necessary, we should go to the help 

 of Italy. 



Sir Harry points out that Tripoli, like Tunis, had in 

 the early eighteenth century detached herself almost 

 completely from Turkish domination. Only in 1835 

 did Turkey despatch an expedition to Tripoli, which 

 brought the Karatuanli dynasty to an end, and for the 

 first time in history made Tripoli and Barka real 

 provinces of the Turkish Empire. The Tripolitaine 

 has only formed an integral part of the Turkish Empire 

 since 1845 '■ — 



Morally speaking, Turkey has no claim whatever to the 

 Tripolitaine any more than the man in the parable of the Ten 

 Talents had to the talent which he wrapped in his napkin. 



Italian action in Tripoli has been immoral, an outrage on 

 international law j but it is doubtful whether Italy is more 

 blameworthy for what she has done than Britain was in bom- 

 barding Alexandria and occupying Egypt, France in invading 

 Morocco, Germany in taking possession of East Africa, or 

 Russia of Northern Persia. 



Two blacks do not make a white ; but Sir Harry 

 must be strangely oblivious of the past if he can for 

 a moment compare the plunder raid on Tripoli with 

 the reluctant intervention of Mr. Gladstone in Egypt. 

 The W(3Rthlessness of Tripoli. 

 Dr. J. W. Gregory, one of the commission sent out 

 to report upon the suitability of Cyrenaica as a field 

 for Zionist colonisation, publishes a valuable report 

 in the Contein/'orary Ranew upon the resources of 

 Tripoli. He says there is no indication of important 

 mineral wealth in the country, and the glamour of 

 the reported wealth of Cyrenaica, which has led to 

 thirteen projects for its colonisation, was not strong 

 enough to bring success to any one of them. The 

 Zionist Commission reported that the land available 

 for cultivation was small, and the water supply 

 deplorably deficient. Yet Cyrenaica is the most 

 fertile province of Tripoli. The Zionist Com- 

 mission reported that it was quite unsuitable for 

 extensive agiicultural colonies. The prospects in 

 Western Trijwli are even less hopeful than those in 

 Cyrenaica. 'I'he general evidence indicates that 

 Tripoli is of little direct use as a colonial possession. 

 Italy cannot possibly make the colony [jay, and it the 

 Senussi ofl'er determined resistanca to the Italian 

 occupation they may set the whole of North .Mrit-a 

 aflame. Not only will the conquest of the country 

 be a long and costly operation, involving an expendi- 

 ture from which there can be no return, but it exposes 

 it to the risk of having a position which can be 

 snapped up by France without difficulty if ever they 

 should have a quarrel with that country. 



WHAT GERMANY WANTS. 

 The Open Door Secured bv a Sironc. Navv. 

 The new number of the Round Table opens with 

 a long and thoughtful paper on the relations between . 

 England and Germany. The writer says the whole 

 world is on edge and instinctively agreed to elbow the 

 Germans out. Germany's position is not the result of 

 British jealousy, but of her own aims and policy in the 

 past. 



What is it, then, that the Germans want ? Thev want 

 to secure for themselves the open door, which Ger- 

 many concedes to all nations in her own colonies ; — 



Germany has no guarantee that the other Powers which share 

 Africa between them will not, like France, retard the develop 

 ment of maikcts in their dependencies and keep what profit 

 there is to be made out of them to themselves. They have no 

 guarantee that even England will not suddenly close the door 

 to German commerce in India. Germany, therefore, is vitally 

 interested in the dependencies of the European Powers, for her 

 national future may depend on the policy which is applied to 

 them and the treatment which her trade and commerce receives 

 in them. This vital interest of Germany can be safeguarded in 

 only two ways. Either she must acquire dependencies of such 

 extent that they will compensate her for exclusion from the 

 dependencies of other Powers, or she must have .adequate 

 assurances that the vast markets of Africa and Asia will not be 

 closed to her own people. 



A large dependent empire is not vital to Germany. But if 

 she is not to have large dependencies of her own a strong 

 navy becomes an imperative necessity for the future of Germany. 



Ungrudged Expansion. 



Professor Michael, writing in the ConUm/'orary 

 Revie7v for December, discusses the relations between 

 Germany and England from the point of view of an 

 historical professor. He thinks that the soft words 

 which have recently been spoken in this country will 

 not fail to make their impression in Germany. They 

 seem to him to indicate a dawning knowledge on tlie 

 part of the English that Germany will not allow 

 permanent limits to be set to her further development 

 as a world-Power : — 



The decisive question, on which the peace of the world in 

 future years depends, is that this knowledge should furnish 

 England with a standard of action. The future can, and 

 assuredly will, bring new opportunities for the exercise of 

 Germany's powers of expansion. I believe I have shown that 

 this activity need not be opposed to British interests ; but State 

 and Society in Great Britain must also display the lofty temper 

 which does not immediately discern in the work of .an honest 

 competitor an inv.asion of one's own long-established rights. 



To be Pedagogue of Europe? 



In the same review Dr. Dillon, writing upon the 

 settlement of the Moroccan question, says that it is 

 most desirable that Germany and Francs should 

 arrive at an understanding : — 



The only condition necessary is that Germany should 

 abandon her designs on the present constitution of the club of 

 luiropean States. Kuropeanism, as Talleyrand understood it, 

 is still lingering on. It has been throttled, but not strangled. 

 The Slates of Europe are all, so to say, members of a demo- 

 cratic club in the precincts of which they meet as equals. They 

 have an Arcop.agus, but no master. To give ih.at free and 

 easy association the form of a school presided over by .1 be- 

 speclacleil German pedant armed with a whip and animated by 

 the combined spirit of Mr. and Mrs. Squecrs, is a perspective 

 galling enough to kindle the wrath of the meekest. 



