THE MIDDLE EAST.

Evening Star, Issue 23677, 10 September 1940, Page 4

THE MIDDLE EAST.

Ixalt has hardly been in the war as yet. Fighting in the Middle East has amounted to no more than sparring for positions and a more or less harmless interchange of air raids. It is not to be expected, however, that this state of tilings will continue. The Italians must do something to earn their share of the spoils which they have fondly hoped will be divisible between the Axis Powers at the conclusion of the war, mueli as they prefer to get them for nothing. A notable pronouncement of Mr Churchill’s speech last week was that “ we must expect heavy fighting in the Middle East before very long.” He added that while nil preparations for home defence had been going forward on a tremendous scale Britain had not hesitated to send a continuous stream of convoys with reinforcements to the Middle East, and the Italians had not thought it wise to attempt any interference with those movements. Britain’s war effort would be materially hampered if Italy could gain control of the Suez Canal, which she might hope to do with the assistance of a movement from her chief colony of Libya across Egypt. Field-marshal Lord Birdwood has emphasised that “ if Egypt fell not only would the whole of Africa bo imperilled, but' the road to India would be laid open, for the Suez Canal would be closed, and the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean would become home waters for the Italian fleet, manned perhaps by German sailors. Wo could hardly hope to hold Palestine; Syria and Persia would go to the attacker, and Iraq’s oil wells would feed the German war machine. Make sure of Egypt, and ultimately we shall make sure of Hitler.”

In Africa itself, so far as the war, or first movements of a war, have gone there up to the present, Great Britain has found one ally and suffered two disadvantages. The loss of French Somaliland, covering the railway from the Red Sea to Abyssinia, as a consequence of Marshal Petain’s capitulation, was a piece of ill-fortune which brought with it the necessity of evacuating British Somaliland, adjoining it, with less strategic importance, below; the southern entrance to the Red Sea. On the other hand, the decision of Chad territory to resist the Axis Powers was a direct gain to Britain’s strength, because it means that Italians moving from Libya will he under thef necessity always of watching and guarding their western flank in designs they may have against Egypt and the Sudan. Great Britain is supporting, Haile Selassie in his claims to restoration of his kingdom, and it remains to be seen how much trouble the Abyssinians and their cx-ruler can make for their new masters in the youngest Italian colony, lying between British Somaliland and the Sudan, with Kenya on its southern borders. While the passage across the Mediterranean to Libya is a short one for them to make, the Italians must have uncommon difficulties in getting supplies to Abyssinia. They must depend mainly on resources they have built up there during the last three years, which have not been entirely free from internal trouble. The best use was made of time in the nine months immediately preceding Italy’s entrance into the war, and it has been computed that, in Abyssinia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland Italy could probably wonk up an army of 128,000 white men and four times as many natives, the fidelity of a large proportion of the natives being dependent on developments of the campaign. A former leader of Abyssinian 11 diebards,” Adebe Rogai, was won over recently to the Italian side, but no one knows for how long. A considerable air force has been established in Addis Ababa. A British movement from Southern Egypt might menace Eritrea and tile port of Massawa. On the other hand, should Italy succeed in invading the Anglo-Egyptian territory, Khartum with its air base would give her a chance to work up the Nile and to threaten the whole of Egypt, since it could bo simultaneously attacked by troops from the Libyan frontier. At any time the war in Africa may become tense with interest.