NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Friday it was announced that the Italian Government had notified to the Powers the annexation of Tripoli. This means the whole of that part of the Mediterranean littoral which lies between the Egyptian and the Tunisian boundaries and the hinterland till it meets the spheres of influence already appropriated by other European Powers. We are inclined to think that the definiteness and irrevocability of this act will not hinder but rather help the efforts of those, including, of course, our own Government, who are trying to reconcile the combatants. The fatalism of Orientals tends to make them bow to the force of circumstances. Just as they find it much easier to accept a definite order than to yield to disguised influence and legal fictions, so they are more easily reconciled to a clear and accomplished fact than to a vague situation. Italy, it is rumoured, and doubtless truly, is prepared to give Turkey compensation in money, and will not on the basis of annexation reject peace overtures by the Powers. What the amount of compensation will be has never been stated, but the Turks must remember that the longer the war proceeds the less that sum will be. The Italians are almost certain to say that if z was the sum they were prepared to pay if there had been no war, the sum after warlike operations have taken place must be se minus a considerable part of the cost of those operations. In a word, the Italians will apply the most famous of all the legends in their annals—the legend of the Sibylline books.
