Evening star., 1925-02-01


triple alliance and interrupted French
and Italian friendship for a genera
ton. In Tunis the native ruler and
system were maintained and France
ruled in the name of the native
sovereign through a resident general.
BY contrast with Algeria, Tunis re-
ceived only a small number of Euro
pean immigrants, about 100000 all
told, at the census of 1921, and of
this population less than $4,000 are
French against nearly 10000 for the
Italians. Thus the native in Tunis
as in Egypt retained some semblance
of his old position and there arose,
even before the World War, Young
Tunis Party. wholly like the similar
party in Egypt, which aimed at in
dependence and clamored for rapidly
increasing share in the government.
Just before the World War, when
Italy attacked Turkey and occupied
Tripol, France and Britain having
agreed In return for Italian adherence
to their own Moroccan and Egyptian
bargains, the situation became very
difficult, for the native Tunisians, both
for reasons of religion and race,
sympathized with the Turks. At this
time there was a very sharp clash
between France and Italy growing
out of the seizure of French ships by
the Italian fleet.
Difficulties Increased.
French difficulties were increased
during the World War when the
Italians in Tripoli withdrew their
garrisons to the coast and the natives
in the hinterland under Turkish lead
ership menaced the desert frontiers
not only of Tunis and Tripoli, but
OF Egypt as well. At the end of the
war France consented to the cession
of certain Saharan areas to Italy,
thus Strengthening out the Pripoli-
Tunis frontier. and the Italians have
since been slowly but surely re-
occupying the hinterland of their
colony.
In the past two decades North
Africa has been a fruitful source Of
European differences. 1t was the
question of Morocco which brought
France and Germany to the edge of
the war in 1905 and again in 1911
The French fortifcation of Bizerta
in Tunis has always been a cause for
Italian resentment, while Britain and
France and France and Spain have
again and again disagreed sharply.
Even the Italians and British collided
over the question of the western
came 30 TripoH.
Between France. Italy and Britain,
too, there have always been major
differences growing out of the greater
question of the Mediterranean. For
France the question of the Mediter-
ranean is one involving the security
of her communications with her most
prosperous and promising colonies,
Algeria. Morocco and Tunfs. and the
transfer of her African armies to
in event of a continental war
The life line of her empire passes
from Marseille to Oran, Algiers and
Tunis.
Vital to British.
For the British, too, the question
of the Mediterranean Is equally vital,
for via Gibraltar, Malta and Suez
runs the shortest and most impor-
tant route to India, Australia and
much of East and South Africa Thus
Britain long opposed French possess
sion first of Algeria, later of Mo-
rocco. and, for time, of Tunis with
its great naval base of Bizerta. Only
the greater peril of Germany in the
north finally brought the two nations
together in the great entente of 1904,
when Britain withdrew her objection
to French occupation Of most of Mo-
rocco and France abandoned her
claims in Egypt.
Meantime the Italian situation was
essentially different from that of
both the French and the British, for
Italy was almost surrounded by the
and its Adriatc Gulf,
therefore her very life was locked up
in the problem. Yet she found her
self faced by French possession not
alone of Corsica within sight Of her
shores, but also of all of the Africa
coast from the Syrtos TO the Spanish
zone of Morocco, while Britain at
Malta watched the narrows between
Sicily and Tunis. In addition Britain
at Alexandria and Suez controlled
Egypt, and later France in Syria and
Britain in Cyprus blocked her path
way of expansion at the eastern end
of what she called her own sea.
In taking Trip6li, Italy established
herself on North African soil, but
Tripoli was poor counterbalance to
French or British possessions, and
Malta commanded her sea route to it.
Italian Indignation, too, was raised
by the fact that after the World
War the British supported the Jugo-
Slavs on the east shore of the Adri-
attic and Greek ambitions in all of
the Turks old Anatolian mainland
and isla ands.
Refuse to Back Britain.
Resentment by the Italians or this
score and French Indignation at the
failure of the British to support
France on the Rhine led to the re-
fusal of both countries to stand with
Britain when Turkey overthrow
Greece and came back to the Straits.
L.
Eastern settlement, led to the evacu-
alton of the Asiatic mainland by
Italy and the retreat of France from
the Adana regions. More than that
it served a powerful incentive to
all the various Mohammedan tribes
in the Near East to stir against their
European masters
Forced to yield to Turkey, the
British were also confronted by a
choice between conflict or concession
in Egypt and were reluctantly
brought to confer upon that state,
which had only recently been de-
from which was only limited by con-
ditions relative to Suez, the Sudan
and certain foreign relations. Diff
hculties with the Turks and the
Egyptians were also complicated by
other disagreements, with the Arabs
alike in Mesopotania and in Pales-
tine, while behind all these troubles
lay the great shadow of ever mount
ing difficulties and perils in India
So far the natives in all these re-
gions had profitted by the quarrels
of the Europeans. Anglo-French
quarrels in Syria. Anglo-Italian dis
putes in the Aegean, the Greek col
lapse and the following and humili-
ating treaty of Lausanne. Each of
these episodes, while Immediately
disa strous to but one Of the several
nations concerned, had contributed
to lowering European prestige and