East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-12-29
Italy Claims Revolt After
Submission Made 1t Very
Necessary.
ONLY COMBATANTS SLAIN
Admitting Many Innocent Iersohs
Were Slain by Mistake During Ex-
citemcnt, Maintain Most women
and Children Were Armeu'

fpy Henry Wood, Rome Correspond
ent of the United Press.)
pome Dec 29.-Italy's first Sc
rious realization that she wouiu pe
able to hold Tripoli and Cyrenaica
only by their complete sup)ugatloh
was something of a double plow TOT
il led up to the situation "hich
brought down upon italy the hostiF-
itv and cr.ticism-either justly or
uniustly-of the entire foreign press
~ not of the foreign governments
themselves. This situation was that
of the alleged atrocities.
As was stated in the preceding ar
ticle Italy was busily attending 10
the "moral and material develop
ment of the occupied territory anu
renulsine occasional attacks from
without, when suddenly, during one
80 tho fiercegt of these attacks and
evidently at a given signal, all or the
natives inside of Tripoli, who hau
previously submitted rose In revolt
and arming themselves In some mSs-
terious manner attacked the ltalians
from without. BY heroic eftorts the
italians were able to repulse the ehe-
nv both in front and behind, put I'M
mediatelv afterwards General cane
va issued his orders that every natlNe
inside of the city found with arms III
his possession be shot that every
house be searched, and that all OF the
inmates of every one in which arms
or ammunition were found, be also
executed.
II was the carrying out of this or
der that led to the reports in the en-
tire European and American press OIL
gross atrocities and massacres OF tne
native inhabitants of Tripoli. Al
though sentiment now seems to De
turning somewhat in favor OF llaiy'
II has not been established by any
outside investigation Just what meas
ures of blame If any, should attach
To the conduct of the Italian army.
Italy herself issued numerous Oh
ficia, denials of the alleged massa-
cres. as did also General Caneva
himself. The latter explained the
nature Of his order as well as the ne
cessitv of It, and it has generally oeeh
conceded that the action he TOOK Is
the same action that has always peeh
taken in such situations in the past
ord which had to be taken after the
natives had shown their tre0chery
and bad faith of their pretended SUBJ
mission.
As to the charges that women ana
children We're put to death 1t Is tne
claim of the Italians that the ohly
women and children put to death
were those actually engaged in the
treachery--the Italians admitting
that there were number OF such
and that they were accorded the same
treatment as the men. To the charse
that innocent suffered as well as the
guilty. the Italians admit that thls Is
entirely possible because OF the eX-
citement. but on the other hand point
out that the italian temperament Is
not one of cruelty. In some lnstah-
ces, they say. the italian soldiers were
actually fired upon by Arab women
and children.
This sudden awakening of the Ital-
ians to the fact that they would have
to subdue the entire territory-natur-
ally threw the whole occupation PACK
onto a purely military basis again
which resulted in step which at llrst
was not contemplated. This was the
actual annexation of the territories
of Tripoli and Cyrenaica-the sover-
eighty of which Italy had at first
been willing to grant to Turkey-and
their incorporation under the rule or
the italian crown.
King Victor Emanuel, in signing
tho dpcrea of annexation. pointed out
to the powers that it had been
brought about by Turkeys refusal to
make peace, its insistence on pro-
longing q useless war and the fact
that all of the principal cities of the
two territories were then in the full
military occupation of italy.