Dodecanese / by J.L. Myres [and others].

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division
Date:
1943
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dodecanese / by J.L. Myres [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/222 page 39
    But the Treaty of Sévres was not ratified, and in 1922 Count Sforza denounced the agreement with M. Venezelos, contributing thereby directly to his fall from power. On 15 October 1922 Lord Curzon reminded Italy that the cession of Jubaland by Great Britain to Italy was conditional on Italian settlement of the question of the Dodecanese with Greece; but his successor, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, abandoned this stipulation, and by the Second Treaty of Lausanne in 1924 Italy obtained ‘full possession of the islands now occupied’, which included Castellorizo since its cession by France to Italy in 1920. | What has happened in the isiands since 1924 1s difficult to ascertain, since the Italian administration controls communications, and ex- cludes visitors except from well-defined tourist-routes in Rhodes and Cos. In September 1928, when a Pact of Friendship was concluded between Italy and Greece, Mussolini assured Venezelos that Italy would not follow a policy of denationalization in the Dodecanese, and this assurance has been repeated on several occasions. What is beyond dispute is the declaration of the new Governor, Senator de Vecchi, on his arrival in 1937, that he had come ‘to bring Fascist lite and the Fascist spirit to the islands’ ; and the decline of the population, most marked in the most independent and progressive islands: in Calymnos from 25,000 (1912) to 8,312 (1917), recovering to 15,247 (1936); in Symi from 23,000 to 7,000 (1917) and 6,195 (1936); in Leros from 8,000 to 2,500, with later introduction of Italian labour for military works; in Castellorizo from 12,000 (‘Turkish estimate) to 1,800 (1917) and 2,238 (1936). In Nisyros the decline is reported as 50 per cent. and in Casos as 72 per cent. (See also p. 49.) But with so many of the islanders abroad, much information has been collected which illustrates the practical working of administra- tive measures which are themselves official and beyond dispute. From the Italian point of view the islands have been administered with scientific skill and lavish expenditure, especially in Rhodes and Cos, where there are Turks and Jews as well as Greeks, the best opportunity for Italian immigrants, and a tourist-traffic which has become copious and profitable ; about 60,000 visitors come to Rhodes annually, chiefly from Italy and Egypt. In 1923 the Governor, ‘Senatore Mario Lago, initiated a policy of intensive development of Rhodes as a commercial centre and health-resort, for which it is well
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3