Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1125

 FOREirxN DEPENDENCIES

1003

10,791. The annual revenue and expenditure amount to 382,109, and 444,835 lire respectively. There is no public debt. The military force contains 38 officers and 950 men. The chief exports are wine, cattle and stone. A new treaty of friendship with the Kingdom of Italy was concluded June 28, 1907, revised in 1908. The Republic has extradition treaties with England, Belgium, Holland, and United States. San Marino has bronze and silver currency coined in Italy : 210,000 lire in silver and 119,000 lire in bronze.

FOREIGN DEPENDENCIES. Colony of Eritrea.

The dominion of Italy on the coast of the Red Sea extends from Cape Kasar (18° 2' N.) to Cape Dumeirah on the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb (12° 30' N.). The length of coast is about 670 miles. The area is about 45,800 square miles, and the population, which is to a great extent nomadic, is estimated at 450,000. In 1908 there were 274,944 natives and 2,930 Europeans (inclusive of the military forces), 2,271 of whom were Italians ; Massawah having 2,275 inhabitants, of whom 524 are European (exclusive of the garrison), and 480 Asiatics. Asmara is the seat of government. The Italian possessions on the Red Sea are constituted as the Colony of Eritrea, with an autonomous administration and the management of its own finance. Military force, 127 officers, and 4,484 men (3,740 natives and 496 Italian).

In the Italian dependencies the central government is represented by a civil governor, who is nominated by the King and is under the direction of the Minister for the Colonies.

^ov^^raor.— Marquis Giuseppe Sal vago Raggi, January, 1907. For the financial year 1911-12 the revenue and ex}>enditure of the Colony of Eritrea were estimated at : Colonial revenue, 3,062,186 lire ; State contri- bution, 6,350,000 lire ; total revenue, 9,412,186 lire ; expenditure, civil administration, 5,418,986 lire ; military, 3,993,200 lire ; total expenditure, 9,412,186 lire.

The tropical climate and the general scarcity of water during the summer months necessitate works for irrigation l^efore crops can be raised with success. Pasture is abundant, but the pastoral population is essentially nomadic. Camels, oxen, sheep, goats, are common, and the produce, consisting of meat, hides, butter, supplies articles of local trade. Pearl-fishing is cariied on at Massawah and the Dahlak archipelago to the annual value of from 250,000 lire for pearls and 800,000 lire for mother-of-pearl. A very promising trade is l)eing carried out in palm nuts. The exportation of these nuts in 1910 over one million lire. There are gold mines worked about 6 miles from Asmara, with hopeful results.

At Massawah the imports by land and sea, ihe exports, and the tonuage entered were as follows : —

—

1908

1909

1910

Imports Lire

Exports ,,

Transit

Tonnage entered. ., Tons

9,133,316 i 17,225,720

3,322,289 1 6,845,026

2,300,006 3, 152, .380

156,850 ! 171,155

16,372,830

7,277,865


 * !, 857,351

183,532

There are 74 miles of railway from Massawah to Asmara (end of 1912), and now the line is being taken to Keren (58 miles) and Agordat