NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE have dealt with the chief events of the week in Tripoli in our leading columns. Here we need only add that Friday's news is exceedingly meagre, but such of it as there is points to the situation being as follows :—The Turkish attack on the too much extended Italian lines was pressed very hard, and owing to the large number of Arabs in the oasis who, after rendering up their arms and apparently abandoning hostility to the Italians, rose and attacked the trenches in the rear, the Italians were for a short time very near a disaster. Since the failure of the Turkish attack the Italian lines have been somewhat drawn in. This means that the Italian position is stronger, not weaker, than before, and the chances of the Arabs being successful in their next attack have greatly diminished. During the fighting the Turkish losses must have been very heavy indeed, for their soldiers, while charging, as they did, with great gallantry, were exposed to the Italian fire. In our opinion the Italian military authorities are to be congratulated upon the fact that the Turks are attacking their entrenchments,—fighting, that is, at a place where the troops can be easily fed and supplied with water. Nothing could be better for the Italians than that their enemies should break themselves against the earthworks round Tripoli. Two or three more unsuccessful attacks would destroy even the tough moral of the Turkish and Arab soldiers. If the Turks had held off and had kept their force concentrated and watchful twenty or thirty miles inland, the Italians would have found it almost impossible to resist the temptation of organizing a force to attack them. But this would have meant enormous difficulties in the way of trans- port for food, water, and ammunition, and would have involved grave risks for the assailants.
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