The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-28

aticism of Islam turns sworn foes into friends and allies, for Is it not written Tn the Koran: Leave your house and home, your wives and your cattle, and rally under the flag of the prophet to annihilate the enemies of Islamr
 The Arabs of Tripol hate the Turks their oppressors, who have taxed and abused them for centuries They would be free like the Bedouins of the Sahara, but not to change from Moslem Scylla to a Christian Charybdis not to be sub jects-inhdels in the sight of Allahi The Padisha, that dual personality who theoretically rules the ottoman empire under theg title of Mohammed Y, is something else besides emperor over 24,OO0, 900 disgruntled Turkish subjects.
 Calipha of All Islam
 He is the successor of the prophet, the commander of the faithful, Calipha of all Islam, and as such he is the leader temporal and spiritual-of 225, ,OO0,000 people who compose the Moslem world. Let him but hnfur that tattered banner, which is enshrined and guarded in the old Serall Pavilion, one of a group of palaces on that long, low point--the Golden Horn which juts into the Sea of Marmora, the emerald flag, the Arabic characters of which have been dimmed by almost 13 centuries, and he will light a conhagra- ton that would shaken the very founda- tions of the world.
 We have heard of nothing but Italian victories and Turkish defeats. The cable news were brian full of them. Deliberate suppression of the fact sor self decap- tion. Letters received at Rome from Ital- Ian officers and men serving with the invading army in Tripoli tell a different tale. They describe in detail the ex- tremely unpleasant, not to say dangerous, position of the Italian troops at the front Battles which had been claimed as Italian victories in the official dispatches are de- scribed as reverses.
 One Italian officer, writing to his father says that the Italian army has lost A large number of men in those engage ments, which are terribly harassing to the ltallan troops. Another letter from a private in the Italian army says that In one battle regiments of grenadiers and barsagieri were nearly wiped out of ex- lstence. Still another letter says that the ltallans on one occasion ran out of am intuition while the Turks and Arabs were well supplied and succeeded in killing and wounding 100 of the Italian soldiers many of whom were mere boys, who in their delirium cried for their mothers
 Defeat Instead of Victory
 All Bey, leading member of the Turk lsh Navy league, who is now in London, openly derided the Italian claim to a
 
 He says that the only Turkish boats in that vicinity displace no more than from JO to 100 tons. Most of them are small old' wooden vessels, and are kept there Tor the sole purpose of keeping the Arabs from gun running" The same official also repudiates the reports that the porte had any intention of suing for peace. In his estimation the Italians cannot sub due nor retain the whole of Tripol and even that strip of it fronting on the Med uerranean, only under the uninterrupted shelter of their battleships.
 This one may well believe. In making var on the Sultan of Turkey, Italy has
 automatically" challenged the chief of all Mohammedans; it has shaken her mailed fist not at one nation, but at the most militant the most fanatical of all religions Be it fully understood, and I say 1t with all the emphasis al my command that there is not a Moslem between the west coast of Africa and Malaysia who does not regard Italys attack upon Tur- key as an insult to himself and to his ialth to the prophet and to Allah
 What Housing the Moslems Means Sixty million Mohammedans of India united in a protest against the war by means of a monster petition to the British government asking it's interces- sion. In Egypt the anti-Chrstian riots became so threatening that the British garrisons were called upon to suppress them. Tn Tunis the French soldiers had to restore order. In Berbery the Moorlsh tribesmen revolted, and 1t required an army sent from Spain to subdue them In Central Asia. thousands of miles from the seat of war, the Russian garrisons quickly had to be reinforced. And most significant of all, in Tripoli itself the | Arabs, crushed under Turkish oppression, | promptly allied themselves with the Turks surely not because they love them l Italy and Turkey, one way or another. l will come to terms. There will be no | holy war''-not now. Turkey cannot afford to summon the faithful of inc | whole world to unfurl that sinister ban ner, which is more than a flag which is a threat stored up against Christianity since the days of Ottoman and his Sara cens and Janitsharies. The invasion Of | Tripoli was more than "a fortnight'S campaign" The Italians have already | found that out to their cost. The end is in sight, though not the kind that Victor Emmanuel was led to anticipate.
 But though practically meaningless, let us see just what would happen if the Moslem hatred of the Italians should develop into an anti-Christian uprising.
 Ten Million Fighting Men | Statistics compiled by we'll informed staff officers show that the Mosem na- tions could put into the field at least 150c,0OO of eXcelently drilled soldiers, aImed with modern weapons. Britain's | Mohammedan regiments in India, the | Spahis of the French forces in Algeria, | Egypt's Brenadiers. the Sudanese camel | corps, the eXcelently drilled Turkish i'm fantry taught modern tactics by the | Prussian general, Non der Gotz- Pashs, | give some idea of how formidable such an army might prove.
 This is not all The proclamation of | a "holy war would call to the flag of the prophet at least 1o,0000O0 untrained
 but good fighting men, who, without a moments histaton would go to their deaths, for has not the prophet promised
 that "the only sure road to the paradise
 was to die in battle against the unbe- II leVers."
 And now let us dissect the terrible con sequences of such an uprising. The 6o00
 British soldiers in Egypt would be mas sacred. for the population is nine-tenths Mohammedan. The handful of police and officials in the European possessions of East and West Africa would be swept off the face of the earth France. by virtue of her overpowering army. might hold the coast towns of Algeria. but could not protect her people on the interior Morocco would shake off the varnish ol her present civilization.
 Result of the Robber Campaign Austria would have to give back Bos mia and Herzegovina to Turkey Rus sia would have her hands full with th' Caucassian CossacSs, and perhaps would have 10 abandon her trans-Caspian pos .a..n I