1939-01-10 — Page 30

THE HONGKONG. Telegraph, TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1980.

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Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 January 10, 1939

World Burden

IT WOULD be difficult, in the annals of human folly, to discover anything quite so fan- tastic as the present prodigious squandering of the wealth of nations on the creation of in- struments for their mutual destruction.

Hardly a week passes but the report comes from one quarter or another of new outlays, fresh burdens and growing budget deficits.

Last year, nccording to the League of Nations' Armaments Year Book, the aggregate world expenditure on armaments was estimated at £2,400,000,000, a figure which probably errs, if anything, on the low side. the existing rate of expansion it can only be a matter of a year or two till the £3,000,000,000 mark is reached,

"CORSICA... NICE... TUNIS"

What's behind it

BY W. N. EWER

who wrote this article during the week-end before leaving for Atorocco, where he hopes to have a peaceful holiday.

"C

ORSICA! Nizza! Tuni- sia!" shout the well- drilled "spontaneous

demonstrators" in

Rome.

Why Corsica, why Nice, why. Tunis? What are they to Italy or Italy to them?

The answer has nothing to do with Fascism. Signor Mussolini has his own purposes in the or- ganization of these 'spontaneous demonstrations."

But Italian patriots were shouting for Corsica and Nice and Tunis before he or Fascismo was born.

The cry for Corsica goes back to the great days of the struggle for Italian unity. For Mazzini it was Divine will that all the Italian peoples should be joined in one Italian state. Garibaldi called him-

self an atheist: but he felt much the same.

THEIR doctrine was that of the Nazi slogan, "Ein Volk, ein Reich." They did not say "ein Fuehrer," because they were democrats and - hated people like Louis Napoleon.

But for thom Corsica was a part of Italy "under the heel of France, just na Venice and the Trentino and Trieste were "under the heel of Austria." It had until 17 been part of the Genoese Re- public,

Its people were "Italians": at any rate spoke Italian, Unity would not be complete until they came home to flag."

Italian nationalism has never really renounced that ambition, though policy has often imposed silence about it.

Language and history are its basis. It has only one flaw. Which is that the people of Corsica have not the slightest desire to be- come Italans.

What Italiana call the French conquest was for them a bera- tion

from Genoese oppression. Anyway, they have been, French now for nearly At

เพล centuries. Their language is still Italian, but. all their fecilag and all their loyalty are for France.

Even in 1932, before the armaments race began, the world expenditure, at £1,300,- 000,000, was already sufficiently colossal, yet to-day we look back upon it as an ideal to which we would all of us only too gladly return if we could. That, un- happily, is more than we dare hope. But no one can refrain from asking himself how much longer the nations can go on standing not only the material but the psychological strain.

are

ones

Among the curious features of the mad armaments race is that the nations which always complaining of their "poverty" are the very which have chosen the role of pacemakers in rearmament. Great Britain, who can afford a good deal, Ingged far behind in the race till she was forced into it by the rapid armaments ex- pansion of some of the soi- distant "have-nots."

So are their interests. The am- bitious young

Corsican-like

young man named Bonaparte in his day-goes to France to find a career. The public services are full of them.

EVEN If (Incredibly) France

were to cede them, thic Corsicans would fight to the death against an Italian conquest: all the more so against a Fascist conquest: they are tenacious of their liberty.

of

So whatever its origins. the cry Corsica!" is mere Jingolstic folly. So is the shout of "Nicel" -though there in the beginning Italian nationalism had a real enough grievance.

Nice and Savoy were the price extorted by Napoleon III from Piedmont for the help of the

Girls Are

Naughtiest At 15 To 18

BOYS of 13 form the most lawless

part of the population,

Desire for adventure and excite-

Germany, the biggest pace- maker of them all, is a country At that age 13.5 of every 1,000 are of whose lack of resources her in girls, the worst age is between 15 found guilty of indictable offences. rulers are constantly reminding and 18. the people. Japan, the poorestment in boys and love of personal of them all, is the country display in girls are blamed in the which is always standing for fome Omer blue book, "Criminal larger and more expensive Statistics For 1937," published rew battleships.

cently.

The rate of lawlessness is halved by the age of 19, however, halved again at 36.

and

BURGLARS OF 14 This steady decrease of crime, with

of the policy of dealing with young offenders in such a way that they not turned Into habitunl criminals

Young people are now responsible

In the case of Germany the ingenuity of Dr. Scharht has succeeded in shrouding the public finances in a vell of com- plete mystery. No one knows age is an indication of the success the total amount of the re- venues, or the amount of public are borrowing, or how much from elther source is spent on arma- ment. But we liave it from the for three-quarters of the cases of Nuzia that they will

breaking and entering. Of the 0,081 tolerato material hindrance to cent, were under 14.

persons found guilty. In 1037 30 per the execution of their "great | Of the 805,300 persons "found economic taiks" arising from, Ruilly" in the year, 60 per cent. came any kind of breakdown of up in traffic cases, 10 per cent, were gulity of crimes, and the rest ap- financing.

peared for diunkenness, betting or The greatest of those "econd. | brenches of by-laws. mic tasks" is, of course, that of $3,420, compared with 83,100 In Drunkenness convictions totalled meeting the bill for armaments.

never

1932

SAVOY

NICE

CORSICA FRENCH

SARDINIA ITALIAN

ALGERIA

TUNIS

SICILY

LIBYA

ITALIAN

YUGO-

SLAVIA

MALTA

French army against Austria in 1859.

Cavour pald the price with a shrug of the shoulders. It was for him good business. It not only gave him Lombardy: it meant French assent to the formation of United Italy.

15

a

But less calculating Nationalists raged. Garibaldi, a Nizzard him- self, denounced Cavour iraltor: planned a rald on Nice to prevent the fake plebiscite which was duly held: was only at the last minute persuaded to call on his historia expedition to Belly in- stead.

0.5

LOUIS NAPOLEON, by the way, was just good at the plebiscite game as Herr tier himself. In the town of Nice only 11 votes were cast against the annexation

Europe was shocked, at French expansion. England in particular was angry and alarmed: for Louis Napoleon was a bogyman.

"This hypocrite and footpad has pinched the silver spoons," wrote Indignant Ambassador Hudson.

Palmerston and Jolin Russell were worried lest the new Italy and all the little nations would "fall through fear and helplessness into the hands at France." The Queen wrote that "if this sort of thing is allowed to go on bloody wars and universas misery must be the con- sequence."

There was talk of war: but it all dled away: new crises and new ex- eftements came,

Nearly 80 years have gone. Nice to-day is thoroughly French. Of its considerable Italian population the majority is very anti-Fascist. But nationalism never forgets the past. Every now and again the cry of

A Spahi of Tunisia, the territory Mussolini covers.

"Nizzal "goca up; espeel- ally when it happens to suit Italian diplomacy.

But in fact neither thic clamour for restoration of Corsica nor the clamour for restoration of Nice is a serious one. The third cry. though, the cry of "Tunlain!" is quite another matter. Italy's grievance over Tunis is not one of nationalism. It goes back nearly sixty years. Even more.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Italy's links with Tunis were al- ready close. The ploneers (what an irony) were Italian Jews from Leghorn, who still form the trad- ing and financial aristocracy there. Then came humbler emigrants from the overcrowded south, sett- ling around Tunis City and the wine-growing country where once was Carthage. Many (it is odd to recall wore refugees flying trom the new "Liberal reginic at home.

Italy began to look on Tunis as her predestined share in the com- Ing partition of Northern Africa. And so it might have been. But at the Berlin (Peace with Honour) Congress, Ballsbury. to get French assent to his taking of Cyprus, sug- gested that France might and "compensation" in Tunis.

BISMARCK, for his own ends, cordially backed the suggestion. All this,

of course, in deadest secret,

Italy's suspicions were roused. She asked and got assurances from France: took them at face value:. waited too long. In 31 there was an incident on the Tunis-Algiers border. The French troops were ready. Within a few weeks Tunis was a French protectorate.

Great Britain, tongue in check. solemnly protested against the aggression sho had suggested. Italy raged furiously: and hap been angry ever since. For nearly sixty years the "Tunisian ques- tion" has troubled Franco-Italian relations.

Not only Franco-Italian. In 1800

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

and here we are in the tomb of the ancient Egyptians. To

your left you see old Egunt an inscriptions to your. right, the carved initials of lust semann'a touristal”

rumours that the protectorate was to be turned into an annexation started talk of a Europear war. When France began to make a big naval base at Bizerta niarmed British Jingoes cried that this meant the end of Britain in the Mediterranean, the cutting of our route to India. Salisbury's gruff comment was. “So long as we have command of sea, Bizerta doesn't matter. If we were to lose that command would matter still less!"

But the main troublo was the status of the still rapidly growing Italian colony. They had, under a, treaty of 1888, right to keep thei Italian nationality and their ow Institutions.

What treaty was ended by th French la 1003, and a new one wo made. That again was ended 1 1018 end only renewed subject & a quarter's nottec. Since then trouble, and trouble and trouble,

THE Italians complain. that every form of pres- sure and persuasion is used to induce Italian citizens to become naturalised, that those who refuse are subjected to all kinds of unfair discrimination.

They complain that they are prevented from buliding `now schools for the growing number of Italian chlidren. They complain of restrictions on immigration.

of They complain

hundred things.

The French, on their side, com-. plain of interference from with- out. The Italians in Tunis, they say, would prefer themselves to be- come Tunisian citizens: propa- ganda, threats, thinly disguised bribery are used to keep them. "Italian "—a dangerous and dis- loyal clement in the state, which, no far from being Ill-treated, is in fact too privileged.

A

best and with goodwill it is no eany question. There is much of reason and of right on both aldes.

And the size of the Italian colony makes it formidable. French statistics give 94,000 Italians, as against 105.000 Franch (which in- clude many naturalised Italians). The Italian Government claims that there are 120.000 Italians registered in the Tunis consulate.

Elther way, the figure shows the magnitude and dimculty of the problem.

Bo, whereas there is, in reality, no such thing as a "Nice question or a Corsican question." there is, between France and Italy, a quite real and troublesome Tunisian question which some day has got to be settled.

SIGNOR , MUSSOLINI. and M. Laval got very. near a settlement four. years ago; but it was not ratified, and I fell to pieces in the turmoil of the Abyssinian War.

But the fact that there is a Tunisian question is one thing. The shrill claim of the Fascist. demonstrators that Tunis 15 07 right Italiah is quite another, On no grounds in the world has Italy" any vestige of right, or vestige of claim to possession of Tunis

Tunisian nationalists (it i m. growing movement) may say that France has no right either-unless might is right. But that La another story.

And Tunisian nationalists have no love for Italy and no belift in Italian love of the Arabs. Ther live too near to Tripoll to have any- "such Blusion,

To-day's Thought THE truth la almays the

strongest argument.

-BOPHOULES.

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