ITALIAN ADVANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 223, 19 September 1940, Page 6

ITALIAN ADVANCE.

In the vast stretches of North Africa even big armies become pigmies. War there is not a matter of winning or losing territory, for neither the British forces nor the Italian are nearly sufficient to defend the frontiers. Hence the British official spokesman in Cairo, in saying that "our course of action is directed

. . . to the destruction of the enemy's forces," is accurately indicating the broad strategy of now begun. An Italian force is advancing along the coast from the Libyan border. The alternatives apparently open to it are to continue along the coast, or to make a dash! with motorised vehicles towards the, Nile somewhere well south of Cairo. If it chooses' the former it will continue to be harried by the Royal Air Force and by the Navy, and eventually will encounter the British forces based on Mersa Matruh, which lies some 200 miles west of Alexandria. If it chooses the latter course it may be able to traverse long distances before being checked, but it will be going farther and farther from its bases. Possibly both courses will be adopted. If so, the advance would need to succeed completely or rapidly, or fail altogether, for if the force attempting it were held up its long supply lines could be cut. Somewhere, at a point selected by the British commander, the invading force will be opposed in strength, and a battle or a series of battles, possibly decisive, will begin.