Libya on the Eve
By NINA EP TON THE flag of the United Nations flutters its white olive branches over two of the most striking modern buildings allong Tripoli's palmy promenade : at the one end over the large villa occupied by the United Nations Commissioner for Libya, Mr. Adrian Pelt, and at the other end over the pseudo-oriental _Grand Hotel, whose pre-war tourists have been replaced by the offices of the United Nations Council for Libya. These are only filled intermittently, for the members of the Council frequently go off to pursue their deliberations in the cooler atmosphere of Geneva. It was recently suggested that they should reside there permanently. They are in- clined to be elusive when they are here, however, and the attractive signorina at the inquiry desk of the Grand Hotel invariably beams back disarmingly : "I am afraid that Mr.
X is in Benghazi," or, "Mr. Y has left for the Fezzan," or after 12.30 in the summer heat, "Mr. Z has just gone home."
Now the Council meetings have been suspended until Novem- ber 28th, and interest centres on the General Assembly of the United Nations which is due this month to consider the Commissioner's report which the Council recently submitted to it. In the meantime Tripoli. basks a little lazily and more than a little fatalistically in her Mediterranean sunshine. As the French say : "us en ont vu d'autres," and many Tripoli- tanians admit that they have been under foreign domination for so-long that they still cannot quite bring themselves to believe that independence will be granted to them "on or before January 1st, 1952." , Still further down the promenade, the fascist columns erected in honour of Count Volpi, topped by the bronze figures of the Roman wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, remind one that there are still 45,000 Italians, mostly of Sicilian stock, in a country once destined to become a vast olive-grove which would absorb Italy's surplus population. Fiats are still seen more often than Austins, and most Tripoli- tanians speak fluent Italian. It is hard to escape from the geographical fact that Italy is bound to exert some measure of influence here.
The 'British flag hoisted temporarily over the battered Castello built by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century— which now shelters the incongruous miscellany of a Roman Antiquities Museum, British military offices and Saint Andrew's church and entre—is symbolical of the seven years of British "care and maintenance administration, which is generally admitted to be superior to anything ever accom- plished by the Italians. In particular the " Libyanisation drive," inaugurated since the U.N.O. resolution in favour of independence, is favourably commented upon in all quarters. Of particular local pride, and quite justifiably so, is the British- trained Tripolitanian police force, which includes some really bright and efficient young men. A Libyan "shadow" administration is rapidly being trained alongside the British administrative departments. As many young Libyans as Possible are being sent over to be trained in Great Britain in such practical subjects as public administration, post office organisation, engineering and so on.
There are eight political parties—including Italian parties —in this thinly-populated country, although it is only fair to add that one of them at least only includes a mere handful of members ; who can be seen almost daily, together with their leader and secretary, sitting round a single table at the " Corso " cafe. Several of -these leaders have emerged from the school-teacher class. Few of them have ever been to the West. Most of them, however, agree on the principle of a United Libya under the Emir of the Senussi, who earned from the British the promise of freedom, thanks to the help he and his people gave us during the war. Other " parties " and " leaders " (it is as well to preserve the use of inverted commas in this context) look outside Libya for their inspir- ation and, it is more than hinted, for their finance : their eyes are directed towards Rome or Cairo. But the Emir is doing his best to rally supporters from all parties, preparing as best he can for the enormous difficulties which lie ahead on the issue of Libya's future constituent assembly.
As far as I could judge from numerous encounters both in Tripoli city and in the interior, the main Tripolitanian political party is still the National Congress—an amalgamation of four separate parties headed byl Beshir Bey Sadawi, the nationalist who fought against the Italians in 1911, later became adviser to King Ibn Saoud and returned to his native country in -1948. Beshir Bey looks younger than his 68 years. Tall, grey-bearded and erect, with fine Arab features and shrewd slanting eyes, he speaks—in Arabic only— with poise and in carefully measured terms. Alone among the other so-called Tripolitanian leaders, he bears himself with the air of a man who is as familiar with cool debating procedure as with court etiquette. I spoke with him far into the night on the eve of his thirteenth pilgrimage to Mecca—for Beshir Bey is a deeply pious man—after which he will fly to Lake Success, where a considerable amount of lobbying is scheduled to take place on all sides before the General Assembly's dis- cussion of the United Nations Commissioner's report.
Beshir Bey retraced his own career, of which the le* motif has always been, as it still is, the independence of Libya. "Libya," said Beshir Bey, "is one country . . . . it is illogical to consider it under three different territories as people would like, i.e., Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan. Ethnically and geographically thevountry is one. Now, " independence has been promised 14. 1952 under the Emir of the Senussi, whom the majority recognise as their legitimate ruler, but what is to happen afterwards when the temporary British administration comes to an end ? Libya has been . neglected for centuries and everything has to be built up : education, agriculture, communications Libya will require outside assistance and experts." In his opinion, it is with Great Britain that the future Government of Libya should reach an agreement. He stressed the point : it should be a durable agreement between States and not between individuals, whoever they might be. Great Britain wants bases in-Cyrenaica; that would, be easy enough to concede, but it would not serve her purpose, in the event of a world war, to have bases in an unstable, poorly developed country. Cyrenaica is the tail-end of Libya, even more barren than Tripolitania. Beshir Bey was expressing the same views as those of some of the British residents down town who believe that all that is really wanted is "a lead frgm the Foreign Office." "If only they would take things in hand," they insist, "it would settle the problem, and everybody would be relieved, from`the Arabs to the harassed members of the United Nations' Commission." Given the right lead, opportunities for her up and coming young men, and some capital—after all, there are only one million people in a territory several times larger than England—Libya, all other factors being equal, could be transformed in ten to twenty \rears.
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