COE,RESPONDENCE.

ITALY'S CASE.

[To TILE EDITOR OF TER "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—By the courtesy of the Editor of the Spectator I am enabled to offer to the English public certain facts regarding the true causes of the war actually taking place between Italy and Turkey, and also certain details as to the appalling horrors to which Italian soldiers fighting in Tripoli have been exposed at the hands of a treacherous and uncivilized foe.

Now, lest it should be imagined that I am drawing upon a novelist's imagination, or that I an not in a position to substantiate the statements I am about to make, I may say at once that in no instance in this article am I merely furnishing to my readers my own ideas.

The Italian Foreign Office, the Ministry of War, and other high Italian authorities have allowed me access to a consider-

able number of documents bearing upon my subject ; and it is from these official sources only that I derive my present state- ments, although I have also at my disposal a mass of informa- tion from private and unofficial sources which I have preferred for the moment to put aside.

If traditional friendship for Italy is strong in this country,

there has always existed, and still exists, a very genuine friendship for Turkey. But this last, I would submit, need not necessarily suffer by looking at facts as they really are, and not as they have been represented to be by certain agents of the Young Turk party, who have succeeded in imposing on the good faith of a section of the English Press.

I do not suppose that even the most staunch friend of Turkey will maintain that the domination of the Young Turks has been anything else than a misfortune to the Otto- man Empire. That party has led its country to the brink of ruin and to the verge of disruption. It has also marked its rule by a return to the worst and most inhuman of those methods of government which characterized the administration it succeeded. It has deliberately instigated atrocities and massacres which Europe has, strangely enough, affected to ignore. It is to this party in Turkey that the majority of honest, patriotic, and enlightened Turks are now

bitterly opposed. They recognize it for what it really is—a syndicate of speculators and political adventurers in which the Jewish element is largely preponderant. It is this party, and not Turkey, which is entirely and directly responsible for the war with Italy, and it is from the agents of this party that the abominable calumnies against Italian honour and humanity and the howls as to brigandage and aggression have found their way into the European Press. I desire, then, to emphasize the fad that this article is in no way inspired by a spirit of antagonism to Turkey.

I will now proceed to offer to my readers extracts from a document placed at my disposal by the Political Department of the Italian Foreign Office. It is a document signed by an Italian statesman of the highest rank, and one well known personally to English society as grand seigneur in every sense of the word. I regret that owing to restrictions

of space my quotations from this document must necessarily be very limited ; but I believe that those I am able to offer will place so-called Italian "aggression" in a new light.

"The conflict between Italy and Turkey which would appear to have broken out HO unexpectedly is in reality only the epilogue to a long series of annoyances and injuries, not always apparent on the surface of things, directed against Italy and the Italians by the Ottoman Government. For a considerable period innumerable complaints had been received by the King's Government from our compatriots in all parts of the Turkish Empire seeking pro- tection against the constant exactions, the impossibility of

obtaining justice, and the absolute tyranny to which we wero exposed, any redress for which grievances was invariably post- poned."

Here follows a long list of specified examples.

"Numerous other complaints and an infinity of controversies of greater or loss gravity exist, such as, for instance, insults and aggressions committed against individuals belonging to the Italian Consulates in various portions of the Empire ; the massacres at Adana in 1009 and the sacking of the agency of the Italian General Navigation Company at Santi Queranta. These acts of aggression were such as to demonstrate that for some time Italians were surrounded by a hostile atmosphere irreconcilable with the good relations officially existing between the two States. And with the new regime (that of the Young Turks), which had aroused so many hopes in Italy, these deplorable incidents only became more frequent and more serious. But the most persistent examples of the aversion and hostility of the Turkish authorities have been demonstrated in those portions of the Ottoman Empire in which Italian interests were most prominent, such as in tho Red Sea and tho Tripolitania. The attitude of the Turkish officials in the Red Sea and on the Arabian coast opposite our Eritrean colony has constantly become more violent and more provocative. The list of insults offered to the Italian fiag is too long to be included in this paper. We will only quote some which have taken place under the new regime. On June 5th, 1909, tho Turkish gunboat ' Nurahad' seized by force the stun of 2,340 thalers on board the Italian vessel, the Solima.' This was a simple act of piracy with- out any possible excuse for its perpetration. Quito recently the affair of the ' Genova' took place. The • Genova' was sequestrated by a Turkish gunboat, towed to Hodeida, and sacked. Animated by a spirit of conciliation, the Italian Government agreed to an inquiry being held into the matter, and while this inquiry was in progress another Italian vessel was seized, and the correspondence of the traders at Massone confiscated."

These instances of Turkish aggression and hostility are followed by innumerable others which lack of space forbids me to quote. They comprise murders, rapine, 'violation of Italian women, assassination of Italian missionaries, and a systematic refusal on the part of the Ottoman Government to accord to Italian enterprise in the Tripolitauia those advan- tages and rights which were conceded without difficulty to the traders of other nations. I must limit myself to quoting from the document before me a paragraph which, I think, will prove how sincerely desirous the Italian Government was to preserve friendly relations with Turkey and how much it

bad hoped for from the "Young Turk party.

"The warm and almost universal sympathy with which Italy had acclaimed the rise to power of the Young Turk party, the proposal to give time to the new regime to consolidate itself, the desire not to create embarrassment or difficulties either for the Ottoman Empire or for Europe, made the Italian Government exercise a patience and a condescension rarely equalled in the history of any people. We continued to hope for the consolidation of the new Government in its acceptance of friendly counsels, in its repent- ance, and in its readiness to reciprocate a friendship which on our side had been extended even to the sacrifice of our own interests. But all was in vain. Every day the situation became more intolerable. Our patience was confronted at Constantinople either by a Government lavish of soft words and promises never carried into effect or by one which was without authority and impotent to im- pose obedience on its local officials ; a Government powerless to °Merv° or to respect treaties or contracts ; a Government, in short, which in the eyes of Italy, had failed to act up to its international obligations. The measure was at last full. T he violent hostility of the Turkish Press, the repeated acts of obstruction and bad faith of the Ottoman authorities . . have ended by arousing and by wearying the public opinion, the Press, the Parliament, and the Government of Italy. . , The responsibility (for this war) must rest on those who for the last three years have daily sought to provoke us and to create a condition of hostility in the various provinces of the Turkish Empire, and especially in the Tripolitania, rendering the position of Italian subjects unsafe and constituting a menace to the peaceful development of trade in the Red Sea and in our Eritrean possessions."

I will now pass to the second, and more painful, portion of my task, and I shall dwell upon it as briefly as possible. As the Italian Army has been held up to obloquy in various English journals, which have not hesitated to accept as genuine the statements of unscrupulous correspondents, it is only fair that I should submit extracts from the evidence furnished to the Italian Government of the unspeakable atrocities committed upon wounded Italian soldiers and upon the bodies of the dead. It must be remembered that these atrocities were committed, and are still being committed, by troops fighting under the direction and leadership of Turkish officers. In some cases the perpetrators were actually wear- ing Turkish uniforms. The excuse that Arab barbarity is entirely responsible for these horrors would, I think, carry more weight were it not for the fact that, apart from mutila- tions, outrages quite as terrible have lately been committed in other portions of the Turkish Empire where Arabs do not exist. They have been committed under tho direct authority of the Committee of Union and Progress As to similar charges brought against Italian soldiers, I will only say that the most searching investigations carried out by Italian officers and civilians of the highest honour and integrity have failed to bring to light one single case in which any Arab either has been ill-treated or put to death unless convicted of treachery. The journalists and others who described in such glowing language Italian cruelty in the suppression of the Arab revolt were many miles away from Tripoli during that suppression. The few journalists and other civilians who were present have unanimously testified to the fact that no such acts of cruelty ever took place.

I will now quote from documents sent to me through the Italian Foreign Office describing the horrors perpetrated on Italian soldiers by their Turco-Arab antagonists. I confine my extracts from these documents to evidence forwarded to the Government by officers whose position and honour are above all question. I may add that these documents are accompanied by photographs of so appalling a nature that it would be impossible for me under any circumstances to reproduce them as additional proof of my statements.

"Colonel Binna, commanding the 93rd Regiment of Infantry, reports that in the course of a reconnaissance made beyond the trenches on November 7th and 8th five bodies of Italian soldiers were found naked and horribly mutilated." "Colonel Faro," (since pro- moted to be General and one of the most brilliant officers in the Italian Army), "of the 11th Regiment of Bersaglieri, has trans- mitted ample proofs of the discovery duringa reconnaissance made on October 23rd and 24th of several bodies of Bersaglieri who had been stabbed to death. The corpses were completely stripped and had their hands tied behind them." Here follow details which are unfit for publication. "On October 23rd and 24th the bodies of the Bersaglieri found on the battlefield of Sclera ficiat were completely nude and mutilated in an unspeakable manner. The captain commanding the 6th Company of the 11th Bersaglieri and the officer commanding the 6th Company report that a wounded lieutenant and several men were surrounded by Turks and Arabs, who hacked them to pieces, and, after dragging their trunks away, proceeded to inflict the most horrible mutilations upon them. The same company also reports the discovery of corpses which bore every trace of having been submitted to the most terrible tortures before death." The accounts of these tortures I refrain from quoting. The 7th Company of the same regiment reports similar discoveries. But more horrible than all are those reported by the 8th Company. Tho bodies found had their legs and arms torn from the sockets and their eyes extracted. Out of twenty-seven corpses found many were disembowelled. ..

I suppress the remainder of this account as being entirely unfit to publish. Other instances are reported, such as crucifixion and various tortures too appalling to mention. I am not exaggerating when I affirm that the horrors per- petrated, not only by Arabs, on the Italian wounded and dead are probably unrivalled in the annals of any war.

I will now proceed to quote from documents relating to the outrages committed on the ambulances and hospitals of the Red Cross :—

"The major commanding the 2nd Battery of the 82nd Regiment reports to have personally witnessed repeated firing on the part of the enemy on the wounded who were being conveyed to the ambulances ; and this firing was also directed upon the tents in which the medication of the wounded was in process. He also deposes to have witnessed the death of two ambulance bearers, who were shot down by Mausers from an ambush only a few paces distant. The ambulances of the Red Cross, numbers 62, 67, 19, 64, 47, and 24, all report having been repeatedly fired upon by the Turks and Arabs while in the performance of their duties."

The documents from which I have quoted also contain innumerable instances, certified to by surgeons of the Red Cross, of the use of unlawful projectiles, such as dum-dum and explosive bullets. It is clear that these projectiles must have been supplied by the Turkish authorities. I have only been able to include in this article a few examples of the horrors to which Italian soldiers have been exposed during their present campaign against a foe which, not content with countenancing the most atrocious barbarisms, has also had the audacity to disseminate by means of its paid agents charges against the humanity of a chivalrous and highly

civilized race. RICHARD BAGOT.

[As friends of Italy we are glad to publish Mr. Bagot's letter, but it must be understood that he alone is responsible for the statements made in it, whether as to facts or policy. For reasons of space we have been obliged somewhat to abbreviate his communication.—En. Spectator.]