The military correspondent of the Times discusses in Tuesday's paper
the difficulties before the Italians in Tripoli There are now nearly 30,000 Italian troops available, but the failure to turn the enemy out of fir Tobras, which we recorded last week, is one of the varions symptoms that very little progress is being made. Nor is this to be wondered at; the weather has been unsuitable for aeroplanes, and reconnaissance has therefore not been conducted properly, as there is a lack of cavalry. It is evident that at Bir Tobras the Italians were without information as to the strength of the Arabs. The crossing of the desert can be accomplished in one of three ways : by throwing a light railway into the interior—a very long and difficult undertaking—by establishing posts at intervals for the storage of water, or by forming a huge system of camel transport to accompany the army. The posts would have to be very strong, and the establishing of them would be a long and very considerable enterprise in itself. As for camel transport, the thousand camels said to be at General Caneva's disposal would be utterly insufficient. Napoleon preferred deserts to mountains or rivers as the natural protection of a
State, and he had good reason. We expect, as we have said before, that the Italians will have to rely a good deal on throttling the trade of the interior by sitting at the chief trading towns.
