Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1126

 1004 ITALY

(75 km.). Thore are 15 post-offices. There is a telegraph line of 319 miles from Massawah to Assab, and of 62 miles from Assab to Perim. Other lines bring the length up to abont 870 miles. There are 2 telephone lines. A powerful wireless telegraph station has been opened at Massawah. It communicates with the radiotelegraphic system of Italian Somaliland and also with Italy (Coltano). There is, thus, through wireless communication between Italy and Italian Somaliland, via Massawah.

The legal currency consists of Italian coins and those of the Latin Union, but in actual circulation are still some Maria Theresa dollars. The Italian mint has issued coin amounting to 10,879,995 lire, under the denominations of Eritrean dollars (= 5 lire), and ^\, y\, ^\ dollar pieces.

Italian Somaliland.

The Colony and Protectorates of Italian Somaliland have an area of 139,430 sq. miles and a population of about 400,000. They extend along the east coast of Africa from British Somaliland to the course of the Juba and comprise the Pi-otectorates of Northern Somaliland, viz., the Sultanate of the Mijertins (Osman Mahamud) from Bender Ziade, the most northerly point belonging to Italy on the Gulf of Aden, to Cape GabbeL on the Indian Ocean (8° 13' N. lat.) ; the territory of the Nogal from Cape Gabbel to Cape Garad {6° 47' N". lat. ) ; the Sultanate of Obbia (Jusuf AH) from Cape Garad to the northern boundary of the colony of Benadir, determined by a line which ends at the sea near the wells of Fah (about 4°30'N". lat.) ; and the Colony formerly called " Benadir " but now officially known as the "^Somalia Italiana," which extends from 4° 30' N. lat. to the mouth of the Tuba, and comprises the towns of Mereg, Itala, Warsheik, Mogadisho (pop. 10,000), Merka (7,000), Brava (5,000), and Jumbo all on the coast, and Bardera and Lugh inland on the Juba. The colony is ad- ministered by a civil governor who resides at Mogadisho ; in the Protectorates the Governor is represented by a Civil Commissioner, who up to the present date has been the Italian Consul-General at Aden. A royal decree of December 8, 1910, provides for the minting of silver coins of 1 rupee, I and I rupee for Italian Somaliland, of the value of 15 rupees to IZ. sterling. The principal occupation of the people is cattle-rearing. But the Mijertins rear chiefly camels and sheep. Imports (1910-11), 4,239,058 lire ; exports, 1,690,652. Imports are ysivn, timber, jjetroleum, rice, sugar, cottons; exports, butter, timber, hides, durra. Animal produce is exported to Zanzibar, whence it is shipped to Europe or America. Military force, 70 officers and 3,500 men. The inland boundaries of Italian Somaliland and Benadir are determined under the treaty of May 16, 1908, between Italy and Abyssinia, by a line (not yet demarcated) from Dolo on the Juba to the confluence of the Juba with the Daua, thence to the Webi Shebeli. and finally to the Anglo-Abyssinian frontier fixed by protocol of May 14 and June 4, 1897.

Governor.— Senator Nobile Giacomo de Martino (1910).

The budget of Italian Somaliland for the year 1911-12 is as folloAvs : revenue proper of the colony, 622,000 lire ; State contribution, 2,979,000 lire ; total, 142,040^. ; civil expenditure, 1,558,000 lire ; military, 2,043,000 lire.

Seven wireless telegraph stations are working in the Colony connecting the principal coast and inland towns. A big wireless station has just been built at Mogadisho, which communicates with Italy, via Massawah.

There are in the Colony 3 principal post offices (Mogadisho Merca and Jumbo) but postal business is carrieil out at every station.