1939-01-10 — Page 6

6

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, TUESDAY, January 10, 1989.

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World Burden

66

"CORSICA...NICE...TUNIS"

What's behind it

BY W. N. EWER

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

C

Rome.

ORSICA! Nizza: Tuni- slal" shout the well- drilled spontaneous

demonstrators" in

Why Coralca, 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- ganisation of these "spontaneous demonstrations." But Italian patriots were shouting for Corsica and Nice and Tunis before he or Fascismo was born.

The cry for Coralen 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, el Reich," They did not say "eln Fuchrer," because they were democrats and hated

IT WOULD be difficult, in the people like Louis Napolcon.

annals of human folly, to discover anything quite so fan- tastic as the present prodigious squandering of the wealth of the creation of in- nations on

for their struments

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, according 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 eres, if anything, on the low side. At 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,

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 can refrain hope. But no one from asking himself how much lunger the nations can go on standing not only the material but the psychological strain.

arc

Among the curious features of the mad armaments race is that the nations which always complaining of "poverty" are the very which have chosen the role of in rearmament. pacemakers

their

ones

Great Britain, who can afford n good deal, lagged far behind in the race till she was forced into it by the rapid armaments ex- pansion of some of the sol, distant "have-nots."

But for them Corsica was a part of Italy under the heel" of France, Just as Venice and the "under Trentino and Trieste were the heel of Austria." It had until 17 peen part of the Genoese Re- public.

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

Italian nationallum has never really renounced that ambition. though policy has often imposed slience about it.

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

What Italians call the French conquest was for them a libera- 11on from Genoese oppression.

Anyway, they have been French now for nearly two centuries. Their language is still Klalian, but all their feeling and all their loyalty are for France.

So are their interests. The am- bitious young Corsican-ke a young man named Bonaparte in hia day goes to France to find a carcer. The public services are full of them.

EVEN if (incredibly) Franco were to cede them, the Corsicans would fight to the death against an Italian conquest: all the more гo

of

agalost a Fascist conquest: they are tenacious of their Bberty.

So whatever its origins. the cry "Corsical" is more 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 from Piedmont for the help of the

FRANCE

SAVOY

NICE

YUGO-

SLAVIA

EDASICA

FRENCH

SARDINIAN ITALIAN

ALGERIA

FREN

TUNIS

MALTA

PANTELLARIA

LIBYA ITALIAN

French army against Austria in 1859.

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

i

But less calculating Nationalista raged. Garibaldi, a Nizzard him-

denounced self.

Cavour A.S traitor: planned a raid on Nice to prevent the fake plebiscite which was duly held: was only at the last minute persuaded to sali on his historie expedition to Bielly in- stead.

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

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

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

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

The

was talk of war: but it all away; new crises and new ex- died a clements came.

Nearly 10 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 ery of

A Spahi of Tunisia, the territory Mussolini covets.

"Nizza!" goca up: especi- ally when it happens to auit Italian diplomacy.

But in fact neither the clamour for restoration of Corsica nor the clamour for restoration of Nice is a serious one. The third cry, though, the cry of Tunisial" 19 quite Italy's another matter. grievance over Tunia 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- fing around Tunis City and the wine-growing country where once was Carthage. Many (It is odd to recall) were refugees flying frum the new "Libera}" regime n! 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. Dul at the Berlin (Pence with Honour) Congress. Salisbury, to get French assent to his tnking of Cyprus. sup- gested that France might find "compensation "in Tunis,

"

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

of course, in deadest sceret.

Italy's suspicions were roused. She asked and got assurances from France: took them at face value: waited too long. In 1 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 she had suggested. Italy raped furiously: and has been angry ever since. For nearly sixty years the "Tunisian ques- tion has troubled Franco-Italian relations.

Not only Franco-Italian. In 1000

Girls Are GRIN AND BEAR IT Naughtiest At 15 To 18

BOYS of 13 form the most lawless

part of the population.

Germany, the biggest pace-1

At that age 13.5 of every 1,000 are maker of them all, is a country fount gulty of fodictable effences. of whose lack of resources her in girls the worst age is between 15 rulers are constantly reminding į and 18.

the people. Japan, the poorest ·

Desire for adventure and excite- ment in boys and love of personal

of them all, is the country display in girls are blamed in the which is always standing for Home Once blue bock, "Criminai larger and more expensive Statisties For 1937," published re- battleships,

cently.

The rate of lawlessness is halved

and

by the age of 19, however, halved again at 30,

BURGLARS OF 14 This steady decrease of crime with

way that they habitual into

In the case of Germany the ingenuity of Dr. Scharht has succeeded in shrouding the public finances in a veil of com- plete mystery. No one knows e la an indication of the success of the policy of dealing with young the total amount of the re-offenders in such a

int turned venues, or the amount of public are borrowing, or how much from criminals.

Young people are now responsible either source is spent on arma-

for three-quarters of the CLICS Of ment. But we have it from the breaking and entering, Of the 9,081 Nazis that they will never persons found guilty in 1937 39 per tolerate material hindrance to, cent, were under 14. the execution of their "great" economic tasks" arising from any kind of breakdown of financing.

The greatest of these "econo- mic taaka" 18, of course, that of meeting the bill for armaments.

or the 805.306 peronis

"found

Huilty" in the year, 60 per cent, came

up in traffic cases, 10 per cent, were guilty of crimes, and the rest ap prared for drunkenness, betting or breaches of by-laws.

Drunkenness convictions talalled 62.426, compared with 33,100 in

1033.

R

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

But the main trouble was the status of the still rapidly growing Italian colony. They had, under a trusty of 1888, right to keep their takaa nationality and their own. Institutions.

that treaty was ended by the French in 1803, and a new one was mnde. That again was ended in 1018 and caly renewed subject to aquaiter'a notice. Bince then, trouble, and trouble and trouble.

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

They complain that they are

from building prevented schools for the growing number of Itailan children. They complain DI restrictions on immigration. 1 hundred They complain of things.

new

The French, on their side, com- plain of interference from with- aut. The Itailans in Tunis, they say, would prefer themselves to be- come Tunisian, citizens: propa- ganda, threats, thinly disguised bribery are used to keep them "Italiana dangerous and dis- loyal element in the state, which, so far from being ill-treated, is ik fact too privileged.

At best and with goodwill it is. no easy question. There is much of reason and of right on both Bluts.

And the size of the Italian colony Fronch formidable. makes it statistics give 94.000 Italiana, as against 105.000 French (which in- clude many naturalised Italiane), The Italian Government claims

By Lichty that there are 120.000 ftallons

"-ant here we are in the tomb of the ancient Egyptiana. To your left you see old Egypt an inscriptions to your

right, the carved initiată of last season's tourista!"

registered in the Tunis consulate.

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

So, whereas there is, in reality. no such thing as a Nice question or n Corsican question," there to, 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 ratißed, and it 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 is by right Italian is quite another. On no grounds in the world nas Italy any vestige of right or vestige of claim to possession of Tunis Tunisian nationalists it growing movement) may say that France has no right either unless might is right. But that 15: Another story

1 a.

And Tunisian nationalists have no love for Italy and no beljet la

They 'Italian love of the Arabs. live too neat to Tripoll to have any such illusion.

To-day's Thought. THE truth

always the strongest argument.

-BOPHOCLES.