It is as difficult for a tourist to arrive at a just opinion on this
subject as for the average Frenchman. The traveller will not find it easy
to acquire the necessary first-hand data, while the other is warped by his
congenital xenophobia.
In 1900 there were 80,000 Italians, mostly Sicilians, in the Regency, as
opposed to 20,000 Frenchmen, one-half of whom were Government servants.
This great predominance of a foreign stock scared some good folks, and a
"Comite du peuplement francais" was organized, to study ways and means of
populating Tunisia with French citizens.
If Sicilians could obtain grants of land under the same conditions as
Frenchmen, large tracts, now waste, would be converted into gardens, to
the profit of the exchequer. Is it worth while? No, thinks the Government;
and with reason. French rule in Northern Africa is a politico-moral
experiment on a large scale, with what might be called an idealistic
background, such as only a civilized nation can conceive. Italians might
improve the land, but they could never improve the Arab; they are
themselves not sufficiently wise, or even well-intentioned.
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