Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-25
Lecture by Charles W.-FurIong
Before Geographic Society.
REVIEW OF EARLY HISTORY
March of Progress Of Country Over
Which Italy and Turkey Battle.
COMMERCE Is VERY LIGHT
That Of Entire Country Hardly Ex-
ceeds $4,Ooo,oo0 Yearly,
Speaker Declares.

Particularly. appropriate to the times
when current history is in the making
in the war now being waged between
Italy and Turkey, was the lecture on
Tripoli, delivered before the National
Geographic Society last night by
Charles W. Furlong The address was
the second of the series of twenty-five
lectures on modern geographical and his
torical subjects planned to be given by
the society during the present season.
Mr. Furlong is a distinguished traveller
and explorer, and Is an authority on
TripOlitan affairs Following the custom
made necessary by the popularity OF the
lecture series, Mr. Furlong entertained
two audiences yesterday. giving his adj
dress first in the afternoon and repeat
ing it in the evening
Opening ris lecture with a review Of the
early history OF Tripoli, Mr.. Furlong de-
scribed the great Arao invasion, which
Oesan in the seventh century, and which
threw the resistiesS tidal wave OF the
Jenad Or holy war sweeping across Bar
pary. He said tnat>it merged the wild
berber aborIgtEes into the sea OF Islam,
oroke down what was LETT of Roman
rule. flooded into spain, EVEN to the gates
of PoiIlers in France, where il was check
ed by the Franks under CnarIemagne.
III spain tDe hOOIS utfQ tHelE sway
for nearly SO years" the lecturer de-
clared, out before they were driven
back across the Straits OF Gibraltar they
mad deeply left the impress OF their
culture upon Europe in its literature,
architecture and metaphysics that the ct
spread over the entire Christian world"
MIR. Furlong followed the backward
march OF the MoOrs, as they were subject
to conquests by Great Britain, France
on SrN.1 rtf IN vtNov h ri
in North Africa by its grip. upon Egypt;
France by Its possession of TuniS and
Span by its hofd upon a few coast towns.
And now the Italian is about to grasp
Tripoli,' he asserted. :.
All Governed tas Part of Turkey.
Describing thefvast territory of Tripoli-
tania, which. he said could be placed over
the area of one-fourth of the United
states, Mr. Furiong enumerated the ter
ritories as including the vilayet Of Til
poll. the Fezzan to the south and the
province OF Barca on the east. all gov
erned as an integral part of Turkey. The
peoples of the towns of rripoiitania or
who drift through her GASES OR across her
deserts are of the four great native races !;
Berbers descendants OF the original in
haDitants: Arabs. progeny of those con-
querors who ~overran the country GEN.
tGIItS dSO, inc lIdttNc JCWo Stuu ltthCt dtlt
blacks, who have migrated from the
south. Among the industries are sponge
gathering, esparto grass. picking and the
transsahara caravan trade, through
which the principal resources are made
marketa bic exports. Except IN the desert
region the soft is surprisingly fertile and
with abundant rains the narvests are
vast. But through lack Of rain the irl-
pO,itan can Count on only four good har-
vests out of ten.
No sne kor cd q ,ravinws nf trade n
ditions in TripoIitania, stating that the
average imports would not exceed $2,CJU,-
90 year, while the entire commerce OF
the country would not exceed the mere
bagateiIe of $l,UO.OU. In view OF this
fact a fight for trade rights could not be
the inspiring cause of Italy's war against
the Turk in Tripoli. Mr.. Furlong said.
There are probably not more than
COO Italians in all Tripolitania,' he con-
tinued while in the city Of Tripoi they
do not exceed 600 out OF a total of $1,000
souls, and most OF them are commission
merchants, clerks or small shopkeepers.
ITO date there seems to be no specific
charge made by Itaiy against Turkey in
Tripoli and those of US who know the
conditions there first hand realize with
what extreme care Turkey has studiously
avoided giving Italy a 'casus belh.
Italy's Reason Political
The remarkable self-control of the
| Turks, in view of Italy's precipitate at
| tack. would lead the thoughtful and UNI
prejudiced observer to eliminate the plea
of a moral right: Neither could religious
prejudice be ascribed. We are therefore
| forced to the conclusion that Italy's
| reason is purely political and economical.
From this point of. view, them Italy
seems to be amply justified in following
the course she is pursuing. Though 300. :
COO Italians emigrate each year. mainly
| to our own country and South America,
Italy is overcrowded and more densely
populated than France, Austria or Ger
many. forcing her to sustain on a none
| too fertile soil 115 Inhabitants to the
square kilometer, as against 1O4 in Ger
many and 73 in France. She also fails
| to maintain an Increase In wealth in
ratio to the Increase In population. 1t is
not to be wondered at that with the gar
den plot of Tripoh at her very back door.
within her possible grasp. and with the
possibility Of Frances taking 1t II she
does not. she has seized what seems
to her to be the psychological moment
and declared war on Turkey.
] "How we'll know the view which met