Norwich bulletin., 1922-04-27
IN THE DAYS NEWS
TRIPoLI.

Noting that the Italians have Gn- poll paragrapher might ask if there is anything significant in Italys title to the country dating from the Treaty of Ouchy
 The revolt is one of many since the treaty was signed in 1918, accord ing to a bulletin issued by the Ma tional Geographic Society, which con | tinues in regard to this North African country
 Physically, Tripoli-er Idbya, as the Italians called 1t, reapplyfng the | old Greek name-is flooded with sun | light as are it's neighbors; but to the world at large 1t is a hazy country for all that. Its boundaries start hravely southward from definite points on the Mediterranean coast, but as to just what happens to them after they get well into the Sahara neither states men nor map-makers seem to agree. They dip somewhere south of the TFo- | pic of Cancer and meet somewhere north of Lake Chad-50o or 500 or TOO miles or so. Lack of exploration of its 1 hinterland as compared with neigh 1 boring countries contributes to the haziness in regard to Tripoli. And ! finally little is known of It's popula- tion; 1t has been estimated at from l. 100000 to 5000, 900.
 1 'Tripoi is just across the Mediter- ranean from the sole of the boot of Italy, and economic and strategic rea- sons are probably sufficient explana- tion of Italian interest in the country. But in addition the Italians were in fluenced by similar force to that which turns the faces of the Greeks toward Asia Minor-a consciousness
 that their ancient culture once em- braced this country. After Carthage was destroyed the area new eenstltut- ing Libya became a Roman province
 and later was the birthplace of tive
 Roman emperors, Septinaius Seyerus
 and Alexander Severus.
 "Old Roman writers described tht
 two parts of Libya, Tr!poh and cyre-
 naica, as extremely fertile. Perhaps
 they exaggerated, and perhaps alsC
 the climate and physical conditienI have changed markedly. At any rat most of the country is now deser
 with it's fertile strips and oases scat tered iA the wastes of sand and stones There Is much eviednce that the regieI
 once knew better days climatically
 Great avenues of stones set on en, l and numerous circles of monellths ant
 trilithons, like the famous Stoneheng I II O1 1<446 lei4AN, NCoNAAy " o 4iNNAtfAAAS WI | ture of importance in this section Q North Africa, perhaps many thousand
 of years before Memphis and Babylon were thought of.
 ''Fhe Phoenicians began the re , corded history of the country by es
 tabl.shing cities there, perhaps a
 early as 1900 B. c. The fact that thes F cities and their surrounding epuntr, throve then, and that later Greek an
 Roman culture flourished there, indi f cates that the country was more flaw
 ored then than now.
 Sand dunes have encroache
 through the centuries on much Ian = in the fertile strip along the Mediter ranean coast. But the relatively poo
 condition of Tripoli today Is largel g due to sociological and governments , factors. The commercial Pheenician
 and the colonizing Greeks and Roman : wGNs able to make the most of tn [ country. Since the region was over l run by the Arabs in 644 A. D., an since it passed under Turkish contrc 5 later, however, it has been marked t l l a considerable extent by economic an 7 cultural stagnation. While the othe 3 principal countries of Africa border g ing on the Mediterranean have bee
 under European control for nearly hal a century and have been becomin ? more prosperous under stable form
 of government Tripon remained unti