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 interests of the Italians in Tripoli and Cyrene (Cyrenaica)." It was judged to be rapidly approaching the right condition in the summer of 1911. It was declared fully ripe by the ultimatum of September 26. But here, too a certain amount of preparatory manuring of the soil had been found necessary. The two most important banks in Italy, the Banco di Roma and the Banco d'Italia, which enjoyed the highest connections in State and Church, found it in their interest to start operations in Tripoli, playing the politico-financial role of the Banque de Paris et des-Pays Bas in the Morocco affair, and of the Russo-Chinese Bank in Manchuria. The Banco di Roma financed a large esparto-grass mill, a sponge factory, a steamboat service, and an oil and soap factory, besides speculating in real estate. Italian archæological expeditions became increasingly numerous. Glowing reports about (non-existent) phosphate deposits and sulphur mines; about vast potential granaries and cotton fields; about fertile lands only waiting for Italian peasants to blossom like a rose; filled the Italian papers, which are mainly run by powerful private interests, or owned by trusts. "Travellers" brought back alluring reports of the brilliant future in store for Tripoli under European management. A mass of nationalistic literature sprang up like magic. Corradine's "L'ora di Tripoli" was typical of these lyrical outpourings. After insisting upon the need for Italy to preserve and increase "her position in the Mediterranean against the Powers which dominate over the same sea," it goes on to predict that: "Twenty years hence all Italy will be imperialistic and the nation should then begin an extraordinary revolutionary action against things and persons which cannot at present be named." Patriotic associations placarded the walls of Rome with devices in flaming rhetoric: "A people is great only on the condition that it accomplishes a great and saintly mission in the world." One final demonstration was required to place impending events beyond the possibility of doubt, viz.: a declaration on the part of the Italian Government that an aggression upon Turkey was remote from its thoughts. This had been duly supplied by the Marquis di San Guiliano, Italy's Foreign Minister, in June: "Our policy," he had then declared in the Chamber, "like that of the other Great Powers has for its foundation the integrity of the Ottoman Empire." By July, army contractors were working full