Peace Moves Kept Secret.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 15, 1912:
Italy and Turkey Are Trying to Becloud Swiss Negotiations.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    ROME, Sept. 14.— Great efforts are being made to keep in strictest secrecy any move concerning peace between Italy and Turkey. Both Rome and Constantinople are busy denying anything which leaks out of the unofficial negotiations which are progressing in Switzerland, proclaiming loudly that so far there is no idea of peace, which, in the present case, is very distant.
    Meanwhile Italy is resuming her offensive attitude in the interior of Tripoli, and Turkey announces that she will not give in one inch on her original demand that Italy must abrogate the decree of annexation of the Ottoman province in Africa.
    All this is simply designed to mislead public opinion and put the newspapers on a false track, thus giving more freedom to the unofficial negotiators, who try on each side to get the better terms.
    Some day, perhaps not very distant, the news will appear that Italy and Turkey have agreed on a plan, allowing them to undertake direct official negotiations for the conclusion of peace, and that will mean that the two countries will be practically agreed on all the clauses of the treaty.
    The greatest desire of Turkey is that her defeat and the loss of her last African possession shall not appear in an official and solemn document, such as a treaty, and the most ingenious and far-fetched, suggestions are advanced by her delegates in order to "save her face."
    She will lose Tripoli and Cyreniaca, but more in substance than in form. She will withdraw her troops, but without mentioning it. She would prefer that her political disaster should at least bring a good financial result, but she prefers that "money" should not be mentioned, emphasizing instead not the concessions to Italy, but the latter's acceptance that the Calipha should continue to reign supreme, spiritually, of course, over the Mussulmans of Tripoli and Cyreniaca.