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preface
A large proportion of the Italian population in Tripolitania did not retreat, contrary to the situation in Cyrenaica. The total number of Italian inhabitants here before the war was 90,000, and now there are about 40,000 people left behind (including 18,000 in the city of Tripoli).
Tripolitania
In order to ensure that the administration would not be interrupted, it was decided to retain a number of Italian officials, who had cooperated satisfactorily. Their retention was approved by the majority Muslim population, although it was not welcomed by a politically minded minority. For safety, Italian agricultural settlements abandoned remote farms and concentrated together, which were vulnerable to large-scale plundering by indigenous peoples. As the remaining Italian police force was inadequate to cope with this, the Sudanese Defence Forces (SADF) units took over the role of the police. Almost all Italian doctors and nurses remained.
They worked together to deal with the typhus epidemic in the city of Tripoli and among the 2,000 indigenous Jews (although "they were not disproportionately abused") who were then in the city of Tripoli and in Italian concentration camps, and soon restored the former efficiency of Italian medical personnel. In dealing with the supply of civilian goods, it was found that the lack of Italian spare parts for means of transport, irrigation pumps and other machinery had seriously affected Italian agricultural production. At the same time, due to the supply of leather for the Axis powers, local livestock were slaughtered in large numbers in 1941.
Despite efforts to control prices, the black market was rampant, and the Eighth Army's return to Tripolitania after the Battle of Tunis and before the invasion of Sicily made prices soar in 1943. Judging by the political attitude of the Italians, there is no reason to worry about any misdeeds on their part. Although a female spy was found in the western provinces during the war, espionage never posed a threat. As a symbol of the end of the old rule, 4 high-ranking fascist officials were detained; But in April 1943, when two delegations claiming to represent anti-fascist parties requested formal recognition from the junta, they were not encouraged because of "insufficient leadership skills." When the Italians conquered Tripolitania earlier, their success lay primarily in exploiting political differences between factions of the local population rather than by the use of force.
Between parties, alliances, tribes, Berbers and Arabs, Christians and Jews, drive discord and create division. During the years of Italian rule, they went far on the path of separatism. As long as it was favorable to the intentions of the Italians at the time, they would find geographical, economic, or political excuses to divide the tribes. With the exception of a few nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes (one of which may number three or four thousand), there are few that are more significant in terms of population figures. In the case of the collapse of such a tribal system or tribal system, it cannot be expected that these tribes will have a unified will, or that some important people will take the lead.
Thus, some time passed before the emergence of political leaders or political platforms, although immediately after the immediate economic difficulties caused by the war eased, Arab politicians began to demand the return of land expropriated by the Italians, the removal of Italian officials from their posts in the military junta, especially Italian judges, and the development of education to prepare the people for the eventual exercise of self-government. In 1944, when many Arabs who had previously resisted the Italians and went into exile returned, a newly formed nationalist party that was allowed to express itself freely advocated full independence, "but the Arabs did little to stabilize their own political organization".
Fezan
When the British Eighth Army advanced westward on the coastal road and entered the city of Tripoli on 23 January 1943, Free French forces under the command of General Leclerc de Otklok ( ordered by the commander-in-chief of British forces in the Middle East ) based on Lake Chad crossed the desert for 700 miles across the desert to occupy the Fezzan oasis in southern Tripolitania and declared a French military junta. A French detachment advanced north, capturing Mizda, 100 miles south of Tripoli on 21 January, arriving only two days later than the British. On 26 January, Generals Montgomery and Leclerc agreed that the French would continue to administer the Sahara region of Tripolitania, north to 28 degrees north latitude and east to 18 degrees east longitude, including Fezan.
Three days later, however, Leclerc informed General Alexander that French forces had also occupied a 20-mile-wide strip of land in the oasis of Gudamis, Delje and Sinavan, bordering the south-eastern border of Tunisia, and that it had been agreed that those areas should also continue to be administered by them. The French administration was largely an orthodox military junta in the same way as in southern Algeria, with the commanders of the local garrisons serving as political and administrative officials. The French, hoping to permanently subordinate the region to French North Africa, spent a lot of money on the economy, placing earlier black serfs on small plots of land, lending seeds, exempting them from taxes, and digging artesian wells to pump water to households.
The request of the new Italian government
As we already know, when he returned to Ethiopia in January 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie declared that he had returned to "restore the independence of my country, including Eritrea and Benadir (Somalia)". He has the support of a part of the Eritrean people. The politically conscious Muslim minority of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica immediately after liberation thought of final autonomy. In fact, none of them deplored the evacuation of the Italians. But soon after the armistice of September 3, 1943, Italian spokesmen began demanding the return of some of Italy's old colonies before the rise of fascism, which had been acquired with the consent of Britain and France. As early as September 26, the Italian liberal leader Count Sforza commented on Churchill's accidental mention five days earlier that the Italian Empire was irretrievably destroyed. "I agree with this statement, because only Mussolini calls Ethiopia, which he sinfully conquered, and Albania, which he foolishly conquered, an empire," he said. ”
Upon his return, Sforza declared on November 8 that Italy should be allowed to retain Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, arguing that these colonies were among the best managed colonies in Africa before the rise of fascism, and that their loss would lead to a resurgence of nationalist sentiment in Italy after the war. On March 18, 1944, the official press service of the Italian government issued a proclamation inviting those who wished to return to Tripolitania to apply to the "Italian African Ministry". But a month later, the British War Office said that anyone who wanted to return there must obtain prior approval from the Supreme Commander of the Confederate Forces in the Mediterranean, but no one has yet asked him. On 20 August, Sforza, who was then the minister in the Bonomi government, said at a grand public rally attended by government personnel:
I think that the Western countries, for their own benefit, should let us keep our colonies. Hurting the legitimate self-esteem of a great people will not go unpunished. There is only one circumstance in which I think that we still have a hundred benefits and no disadvantages even after the material loss of our colonies, and that is when the colonial Powers realize the effective way to keep the colonies for the longest and to develop them to the best ... It was the merging of all the colonies under one great international federation and administered by a mixed governing body.
On the other hand, the British Foreign Secretary has twice replied succinctly and affirmatively to the assurances requested by Parliament: (1) the statements made by successive Governments concerning the former Italian colonies continue to represent the policies of the British Government and its allies; (2) The British Government opposed the return of the colonies to Italy and strictly observed previous declarations that the Italian Empire was irretrievably doomed. The second pledge drew sharply indignant comments from conservative Italian newspapers. Italian Prime Minister Bonomi said in an interview with the New York Times: The reality is this, and it can only be this: Italy, freed from the shackles of Mussolini preventing it from expressing the will of the Italians, believes that it has immediately sided with the Allies, shares with them the same war objectives, pursues common ideals, and is closely linked to their destiny. In the words of my close friend Croce, "We immediately felt that we were in the ranks of the victors". How can such a people be reminded on every occasion that they are the vanquished and should be treated by the vanquished?
The matter was later resolved diplomatically, and when Eden answered the House of Commons' question on 16 January 1945, he was very spared the question of what was the future of Italy's pre-war colonies... It will be discussed by the United Nations when a peace treaty is to be concluded. ...... The Italian government now has no right to demand the return of any of its colonies. The treatment of those colonies will need to be discussed in part in the future. In response, an American journalist commented: The British government believes that this additional opinion has at least left the door ajar, open to the Allied authorities, who are very concerned with encouraging and helping Italy to find a way out and return to the democratic camp. The Allied authorities were fighting the fascist propagandists of northern Italy and their underground workers in the liberated territories of Italy who were trying to use rumors to trumpet that Italy would be dismembered by the victorious powers.
On 5 April, Bonomi said at a press conference that the "old colonies" were governed very wisely, especially in the period leading up to fascist rule. Thus, ties of loyalty and solidarity have been established between the inhabitants of Eritrea and Somalia and the Italians in Africa and have withstood all tests. The question of the future of Italy's former colonies was clear at the end of the war in Europe. The matter was not discussed in San Francisco, where Italians feared a decision might be made in their absence. The future treatment of the United Nations is discussed separately in the other volumes of the series.
Resources
D.C.C., "The Nationalist Movement in Libya," The World Today, July 1946, vol. 2, p. 338
Newsier, 17 May 1943
New York Herald Tribune, 10 November 1943; The Times, 17 November 1943 (letter from Congressman Iver Thomas).
The Courier, Salerno, 18 March 1944.
The Daily Telegraph, 20 April 1944.
Risorgimento Liberale, 22 August 1944.
7 June 1944, House of Commons Debates, Series 5, Vol. 400, Box 1331; October 4, 1944
The New York Times, October 8, 1944.
Debate in the House of Commons, Series 5, Vol. 407, column 137.
Peter Rhein, Christian Science Monitor.
Hull: Memoirs, vol. 2, pp. 1563-1569;
Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, pp. 838-839; British Edition, vol. 2, pp. 830-831.
Avanti, 7 April 1945.
Survey, 1947-1948, pp. 121-123;