The names were like a dirge to the war-weary Italians. First it was Eritrea, then Somaliland, then Ethiopia and Cyrenaica. Last week the one Italian venture into empire that was worthy of the name was gone, too. Ancient Tripolitania, gleaming with modern roads, watered by giant aqueducts, colonized with thousands of eager peasants, had fallen to the Allies (see p. 26). Italians had only the sands blown across the Mediterranean by the sirocco to remind them of the 1,239,112 sq. mi. of African empire they had owned.
To the Italian people Tripoli was a proud name, a "jewel city." They...
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