The Progress of the World. 



347 



is as supreme on land as Italy is on the sea. Shcfkct 

 Pasha would make short work of any Italian army 

 that could be landed in Europe or in Asia, and in 

 default of effeiti\e military occupation what is Italy 

 to do? If her airships are able to destroy the forts 

 which guard the straits by dropping dynamite upon 

 them from the skies, the fleet may get through — if it 

 dodges the authored torpedoes, some of which the 

 dolphins have been exploding by mischance. But after 

 it gets through, what then ? It can, of course, burn 

 down Constantinople, which is an unfortified town. But 

 that will not sutTice to bring the Turks to submission, 

 whereas it would bring all Europe about the ears of 

 Italy. The situation of Italy is, no doubt, very bad, 

 and it will steadily get worse as the summer advances. 

 It is well that it should be so for the sake of civilisation^ 

 and especiall\- for the sake of Italy. No greater 

 disaster can befall a nation than the discovery that 

 it is cheap and profitable to play the pirate. 



The Italians have got a wolf by 

 What Italy ^^^ ^^^^ '" Tripoli. They can 

 Has Got to Face, neither advance nor retreat. There 

 is not a sign that the Arabs are 

 weakening in their determination to resist to the death 

 the invasion of their oases. As for the Turks, their 

 position is perfectly plain. It was very lucidly explained 

 to me by a Turkish senator who recently arrived in 

 London. " \Ve cannot make peace with Italy for two 

 very good reasons. If we made peace signing away 

 Tripoli, we should immediately be confronted with a 

 far more serious war, a war of the Arabs against the 

 Power which had betrayed them to their foes. The 

 other reason why we cannot make peace is because 

 it costs us less to make war than it did to govern 

 Tripoli in time of peace. The war at present costs us 

 nothing. Tripoli in time of peace was a burden upon 

 our finances. Tripoli carries on the war without 

 asking from us one piastre. But an Arab war would 

 cost us much. To ask us to make peace, therefore, is 

 to ask us to CXI hange a war with Italy, which costs 

 us nothing and c .innot possibly do us any serious harm, 

 for a war with the Arabs which will cost millions and 

 might entail the loss of the whole of Arabia and Mesopo- 

 tamia. So far as wc are concerned there will be no 

 peace until the summer comes, when the cholera and 

 perhaps the .Senoussi may clear the invaders out of 

 Tripoli." 



Profound regret was felt and 



The Attempt expressed throughout the i ivilised 



King of Italy. world when it was heard that on 



March i4lh a young anarchist had 



attempted to assassinate King Victor Emmanuel of 



Italy. The King was leaving the Quirinal for the 

 Pantheon to attend a memorial service for his father, 

 when a young mason of twenty-one years of age fired 

 several shots at him. They fortunately missed their 

 mark. One bullet wounded the major in charge of 

 the royal escort. The would-be assassin, who narrowly 

 escaped hTiching. said that he was an individual 

 anarchist,. and made the attempt as a protest against 

 the organisation of society. The incident has done 

 much to increase the enthusiasm with which the 

 King is regarded by his subjects. No saner or more 

 liberill-minded monarch sits upon a European throne 

 than Victor Emmanuel. 



The General Election in Turkey 



^ of ^" h^^ ^^^^ too successful. The Com- 



the Turkish mittee of Union and Progress have 



General Election. ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^,] ^^ .^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^-^ 



political opponents. It is estimated that 200 of the 

 267 members of the new Chamber will be the supporters 

 of the Committee. This is from one point of view a 

 triumph ; from another it is a disaster. The Com- 

 mittee of Union and Progress would have been better 

 advised if it had not made the elections with such 

 thoroughgoing determination. Riza Tewfik is out, afid 

 !M. Boussios and many another man of independence 

 and influence. So far only a few incidents of coercion 

 are reported. But it is probable that the Committee 

 followed Spanish rather than British precedents in 

 managing the elections. However they did it, the 

 result is clear. The Committee has got a majority 

 at its back once more, and as the army shows no signs 

 of mutiny, the Young Turks have got another chance, 

 of which we all sincerely hope they will make the 

 best use. Whether the day of grace will be prolonged 

 much further no one knows. There are uneasy move- 

 ments among the Malissores and Montenegrins, and 

 Bulgarian revolutionists are busy. But threatened 

 men live long, and the Sick Man, who is always on the 

 point of death, never dies. 



Not even the presence of Lord 



The Khedive Kitchener in Egypt entirelv over- 



and his , , , ' i- ■ ' c , 



Grand Vizier. shadows the personalities of the 



Khedive and his Prime Minister. 



The Khedive, who opened the General ,\ssembly 



March 25lh, has been credited with the ambition of 



realising the ideals of Mehemct .\li. If the Ottoman 



Empire were to be broken up in our time, possibly 



the Khedive — whose resemblance to the Kaiser Wilhelm 



is obvious to everyone who looks at his portrait — 



might be tempted, but as Turkey is not going to be 



broken up, he will not be exposed to the temptation. 



The Prime Minister of Egypt, .Mohamed Pasha Said, is 



