TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE WAR IN TRIPOLI. NEWS received during the past week shows that the war in Tripoli has not, for the time, been going well for the Italians. Repeated and determined attacks have been made by the Turks and Arabs upon the long Italian line of entrenched outposts which curve round the city of Tripoli. Though the Turkish claims to great victories and to the capture of prisoners and Italian forts have proved, we are glad to say, to be groundless, the great numerical strength of the attacking force and the individual courage of the Turkish soldiers have made it necessary for the Italians to draw in their line so as to make it shorter and therefore less vulnerable to attack. It is to this circumstance no doubt that are due the rumours of the capture of two forts. The Italians with- drew from some of their earthworks which had been too far advanced. All this does not of course mean that the Italians are in any danger of being driven into the sea or of suffering any great disaster. It does mean, however, that they are going to find the resistance in and around Tripoli much more serious than they had at first supposed. As almost always happens in invasions of an Oriental country by Europeans, the Arabs were, to begin with, sur- prised and bewildered and unable to make any resistance. They appeared therefore to be completely cowed and to be willing to accept Italian domination. In reality they were collecting themselves for a spring. With the military instinct which Arabs and Turks, however primitive their war methods may seem from certain points of view, always show, they formed a point of concentration at a place in the desert near Tripoli, but out of reach of the Italian arms, or at any rate too far for them to reach at present. To this point of concentration crowded Arabs and fighting men of the desert of all kinds, and by the middle of last week a very formidable force was got together.
On Monday, October 23rd, this force flung itself upon the Italian position in great strength, though there seems to be no clear report as to the actual numbers. During the attack on the long line of entrenchments there occurred an incident which all friends of Italy must regret and deplore, even if it should prove that the official defence put forward from Rome is as sound as we hope it may prove to be. The Italian lines are flung out so far that they include an oasis not actually connected with the town of Tripoli. It is, indeed, a kind of garden suburb, with a thin strip of desert or partial desert separating it from the walls of the town. This garden suburb was inhabited by a large number of Arabs who were not only supposed to be reconciled to the Italians, but were believed to have surrendered their arms and to have accepted the protec- tion of the Italians as non-fighting men. When, however, the main Turkish attack was launched, the Arabs of the suburb and oasis rose and poured a murderous fire into the back of the Italians, who, lying in their trenches, were already hard pressed by the main assault. The Arabs of the suburb had, it appears, been in secret communication with the Turks, and were ready when the firing. gave them the signal to spring to arms. Their submission had been a fraud, and from all sorts of hiding places they produced repeating rifles and stores of ammunition. The fact that the oasis is a network of palm trees, garden walls, and small houses made the position of these treacherous in- surgents a commanding one. If the Italian troops had not been exceptionally brave and steady, the totally unexpected attack in the rear might have caused a panic, of the result of which one shudders to think. Fortunately, however, the Italians were able first to drive off the main frontal attack and then to deal with the enemies in their rear. We may mention here that the photographs in the Daily Mirror of Wednesday bring out in a very striking way the position of the Italians. One of the photographs shows men in a trench in a position which they very seldom are called on to occupy in war. Instead of a line of men lying or crouching in the trench, all facing and firing one way, the trench is bristling with rifles on both sides ; the soldiers are firing back to back. That is a position so perilous, so terrible, indeed, that soldiers must be expected to do all in their power to prevent its recurrence.
Now comes the point at which the controversy as to the action of the Italians and the conflict of evidence begins. The exceptionally trustworthy, well-informed, and ex- perienced correspondent of the Times, the correspondent of Reuter's Agency, and the photographer of the Daily Mirror, are all in agreement in declaring that the reprisals on the part of the Italians were unnecessarily cruel and bloody. In effect the correspondents tell us that not only did the Italian soldiers in the beat of blood retaliate upon their assailants, but that for no less than three days the whole oasis was given up to military execution. The correspondents of the Times and Reuter's Agency give us to understand indeed that the Italian troops practically slaughtered out its inhabitants, killing them, including some women and children, to the number of 4,000. Excited Italian newspaper writers speak of their exterminating the whole suburban population. If this should unhappily prove true, then undoubtedly there will be a terrible stain upon the Italian arms. Though the Italians would be fully justified in making an example of men who had been disarmed and received the protection due to disarmed citizens, and who then treacherously abused the consideration that had been shown them, and, produc- ing hidden arms, attacked those who had trusted them, nothing could justify wholesale extermination and the deliberate killing of women and children. The accidental killing of women in a population in which both sexes wear flowing robes is no doubt very difficult to avoid.
If the massacre took place, not only is it morally to be condemned, but also politically. What the Italians want to avoid above all things is resistance in the nature of a holy war. But that is just the kind of resistance they are sure to provoke if the troops are allowed to lose their heads and not only to kill men recklessly but to kill or give the impression that they have killed women or have forced them to unveil—a proceeding which is sure to lead to the belief, whether true or not, that the women have been violated by the soldiery. Massacre and the mis- handling of women are far more likely to harden the hearts of Mohammedans than to strike terror into them. No doubt they fear death as do other men, but they are always apt to think that peaceful submission is useless, that they are certain to be killed, and that therefore they may as well die fighting desperately. The essential thing is to disabuse them of this opinion and to make them under- stand that they are not doomed to death even if the Europeans win. Anything in the nature of a massacre, of course, makes it impossible to dissuade them that it is possible to live peacefully under the Italians. We have stated the case against the Italians. We must now deal with the statement issued by the Italian Prime Minister on Wednesday, which, if the facts given can be substantiated, offers a complete defence for the Italians. The Prime Minister begins by recounting the sudden Heing of the Arabs on October 23rd much as we have told it. He goes on to say that " in consequence it became an imperative necessity to purge the oasis of the traitors and to punish those of them who had committed some special criminal acts." Accordingly "those who during the fight- ing or immediately after were found with arms in hand were shot." (The carrying of arms ought not always to be a sign of guilt, but in the case where a population is sup- posed to have given up its arms one can hardly blame the Italians for taking the bearing of arms as a sign that those who bore them had been using them.) In addition we are told that those who after a regular trial were found guilty of murder or other criminal acts of the kind were shot. Then follows the point which we must regard as crucial. The Prime Minister, speaking, of course, on the information he has received from Tripoli, declares that " other Arabs were arrested to the number of 2,000, because they had connived at the treachery, or because they had contravened the order of the Governor for the sur- render of all arms, and these prisoners were transported to the Italian islands." He goes on to say that on the days following the 23rd some fresh partial outbreaks of revolt occurred and were repressed in the same way. " Therefore there was no systematic slaughter of unarmed people, of women and children. There was no indis- criminate repression." Finally we are told that as the attack on the advanced posts did not cease all the walls of the gardens, plantations, and everything which in the oasis might offer a shelter to rebels were demolished. "This was not done until all inoffensive Arabs, the women and children had been removed from the oasis and brought in towards Tripoli." Signor Giolitti concludes by declaring, what we are afraid is only too likely to be true, that acts of atrocious infamy were perpetrated on wounded Italian soldiers. He mentions also how two companies of Bersaglieri of about 400 men lost more than 300 killed and had only 14 wounded. This, no doubt, points to the two companies having been ambuscaded and massacred. He further says that on the 23rd and the 26th the Italians lost altogether 374 killed and only 150 wounded. " It will be evident," he continues, " that such a result would have been impossible unless our wounded had been massacred in the unfair fight." Which are we to believe ? The official version or the reports of the correspondents ? The first impulse of most English readers will be to disbelieve the official version, and to say that of course the Prime Minister has got to make the best defence he can for a terrible blunder. Though ourselves by no means inclined to swallow either this or any other official explanation wholesale, we should strongly advise our readers to suspend judgment. Though the official version may gloss over acts of Italian barbarity, it must also be remembered that the Times and Reuter's correspondents could not have seen with their own eyes the general massacre which they describe, and which they no doubt genuinely believed to have taken place. In all such cases men have to act upon information received from others. No man can see 4,000 people killed. But the Arabs and the Italians were very greatly excited, and we may be sure that in their reports they exaggerated what was done in the confused fighting in the gardens. When people are perturbed by danger and horrified by the shed- ding of blood they soon lose the sense of proportion and even the power of counting. The shooting of thirty or forty men might easily be exaggerated into tales of whole- sale destruction and the slaughter of thousands. As we have said, the crucial point is the official statement that 2,000 prisoners were taken on the days in question. If that can be proved a great deal will have been done to clear the character of the Italian army, as we most sincerely hope and believe it will be cleared. The taking of those prisoners will show that the Italians acted as civilized troops ought to have acted in the very trying cir- cumstances in which they were placed. Whilst the firing was going on they would most naturally have retaliated upon the men of the suburb with all the strength at their command, and would also moat naturally have shot all citizens, hitherto believed to be peaceful and unarmed, who were treacherously attacking them in the rear. As soon, however, as the Turkish attack in front had been repulsed, the proper plan would have been for the Italian officers to attempt to get hold of the ringleaders in the insurrection and make an example of them, while at the same time giving protection to the general population of the oasis. The final step would have been to clear the oasis of its inhabitants, since it would be absolutely impossible to trust them again or to expect the Italian soldiers to fight with foes who were ready to stab them in the back. The clearing of the oasis should have meant, however, not the killing but simply the taking prisoners of the inhabitants. This in effect is what the Italian Prime Minister tells us did happen. If that is so then the Italian military authorities will have nothing to be ashamed of.
Though it may seem a somewhat lame and conventional conclusion, we expect that on full investigation the truth will be found to lie between the two reports. In all probability the massacre was not nearly as bad as the correspondents first imagined it to be, and, next, that though no orders were given to the Italian troops to perpetrate anything in the nature of a massacre, the fierce southern blood led them to make their re- prisals far more vehement than was necessary. No one who has seen an Italian crowd in a state of excitement over some comparatively trivial matter will wonder that men who had been treated as the men in the Italian trenches were treated, and whose minds had been further inflamed, as no doubt they were, by the butchery of their .wounded, showed very little patience or self-control, either in clearing the oasis or in selecting the persons who were to be made an example. British people are seldom .judicially minded when it is a question of humanity, and we cannot profess to regret this altogether, for the unchaining of the blood lust is horrible and to be condemned even when there is excuse or explanation for it. At the same time we most sincerely trust that people here will keep their heads in this matter and not let sentiment run away with their sense of justice. We do not wish to say anything in prejudice of the Turks, but it would be foolish to forget that fanatical Moslems do not fight with kid gloves. As the Armenian massacres, and still more the recent massacre at Adana, show, they can be terribly cruel in their methods. Two wrongs do not make a right, but in view of what the Turks have done to Christians so recently and of their methods of fighting in Tripoli which have come under the eyes of the Italian troops, it would be most unfair to expect those troops to consider matters in the calm and philosophic spirit in which we consider them in England. One must never forget, too, that the Turk and the North African Arabs play a very different part in the popular imagination of the peoples of the Mediterranean, and especially of the Southern Italians, from the part they play here. The ordinary Italian private soldier has been taught from his youth to regard the Turk and the Arab as ancient enemies who oppressed him, and ravaged his coasts, and destroyed his ships, and bore his women and children into captivity. Hence the Italian often goes into battle with a traditionary feeling, akin to that of the Crusader, which it is very difficult for our people to realize. Still, when all is said and done, the Italian authorities will be making the greatest possible mistake if they do not keep their troops better in hand and do every- thing in their power to avoid a repetition of what took place between October 23rd and 26th. The more they avoid military executions the better it will be for the pro- spects of their army and their future government. They mean to stop in Tripoli, and therefore they have got to live with the Mohammedans who inhabit it. The less, then, they inflame the hatred of the population and give cause for bitter memories the better. Cruelty and unnecessary bloodshed are as bad from the military and political point of view as from the moral.
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