ITALIANS MOVING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 199, 14 August 1940, Page 7

ITALIANS MOVING

ATTACKS IN AFRICA j DIFFICULT COUNTRY Alter considerable delay, the Italians are beginning their land war i against Britain, seeking to conquer British Somaliland, and to advance • from the eastern.side of Libya lor an attack on Egypt. These actions' ; are in line with the policy announced by Mussolini . that "land object;/ would be sought first." Transparent Aims. The present aims of the Italiansare Iransparent enough. The conquest of British Somaliland would round out the territory which they now hold on the north-west coast of Africa and along the Red Sea, and would bring them along the whole southern shore of the Gulf of Aden. From there and from Eritrea they might attempt to close the Red Sea to shipping by the use of aeroplanes It is doubtful if they have the planes to do this, but they probably would try. The attack on Egypt, of course, is designed to drive towards the Suez Canal, the British possession of which is slowly strangling both Italy and the new colony of Ethiopia, which is now completely isolated. The capture of the Canal would drive the Fleet from the base at Alexandria and possibly from the Eastern Mediterranean and make two other things likely. One of these would be an attack on Palestine and Irak in an jeffort to obtain oil supplies. The other would be the use of the Red Sea as a highway for the invasion of-Kenya and Uganda. A Considerable Problem. The military problem of the in-: vasion of Egypt is the most considerable that Italy is likely to have to face. The troops can move only along the strip of coastal country, crossing a waterless desert for hundreds of miles. The conditions create great problems of supply. This fact and the modification of the whole basis of the Italian policy of complete reliance on the aeroplane (which was announced wheo Admiral Domenico Cavagnari,, Un-der-Secretary cf the Navy and chief directing mind of the forces, shid last May that aircraft could not be used successfully against capital ships) account for some of the recent delay. Other factors, besides the appav cut difficulties of the campaign, have been threefold. The Italians arc known to have been short of material and they may even have needed to get fighting vehicles from Germany, They are also known to have limited supplies of oil. Aid From French Collapse. Had not France collapsed it is doubtful if they could have muster' ed up the considerable supplies of oil which would be wanted for a large land campaign. The plunder' ing of French sources of supply would undoubtedly help them. The third factor is the dubious quality and discipline of the native troops in Ethiopia. The Italian attack thus represents an attempted pincers movement, with the sea approaches to Egypt, the Suez Canal, and the land route 'to Asia Minor the ultimate goals. In carrying out this attack the Italians will have a limited number o! men at their disposal—limited since there can be only a certain ■forcte employed in the north because of the difficulties of supply, .and since in the south-east the garrison is already bcleagurcd.