Last Sunday's papers announced that Italy had declared war on
Turkey. The reasons which prompted this decisive step are given in a circular addressed by the Italian Govern- ment to their representatives abroad. This document states that immediately after signing in October, 1912, the Treaty of Lausanne, which gave Italy possession of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, the Ottoman Government began to violate it, and have continued to do so up to the present moment. All diplomatic protests proved entirely useless, and quite recently numerous flagrant violations of the rights, interests, and even the liberty of Italian subjeots within the Otto- man Empire led to the •presentation of an ultimatum on the 3rd of this month, The four demands made in this Note with regard to the free departure of Italian .citizens in Asia Minor were accepted by the Grand Vizier on the 5th, but four days later the military authorities revoked the consent for departure, with the result that the Italian Government instructed their Ambassador at Constanti- nople to declare war on Turkey. Although Italy is now at war with two of Germany's allies, she is not yet formally at war with Germany herself. That we can count on her assistance in the Dardanelles is more than probable, while the indirect effect of her decision on the Balkan States is bound to be serious, if not momentous.
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