WILL FIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1940, Page 7

WILL FIGHT

EGYPTIAN ARMY DESERT MANOEUVRES MILITARY TALKS BEGUN

|. Rec. 9.5 p.m. London, Sept. 18. Egypt's army of 30,000 men will unquestionably fight at the . appropriate time, says the correspondent , of the Times at Cairo. Already the native army is carrying out 'manoeuvres outside Cairo and in the desert. ^ : ; Long convoys of the Egyptian army's i camouflaged trucks, Bren gun carriers and artillery are flling t across the capitai. Their equipment I is superior to anything that has yet been captured from the Italians. Volunteers and civil guards have taken I over security jobs at Cairo and Alexan- ; dria, regular Egyptian troops guard the bridges of the Nile, Egyptians man antiaircraft guns and searchlights around tlie two cities and Egyptians and Sudanese man frontier observation posts. Native anti-aircraft gumiers at- Alexandria have been signally successful in repulsing the 75 Italian raids, which have killed 10 civilians and wounded 40. The Italians repeatedly missed their objective, which is the British fleet. Big Training Plan Forecast. The commander-in-chief of the Egyptian territorial army, forecasting increasingly powerful forces, said:' "We ea a train 200,000 men annually." | A leading Arabic newspaper, Alahram, says: "Egyptians have full confidence in their leaders and await patiently the outcome ■ of their discussions, but they earnestly hope they will not have to wait | too long." All the newspapers are most j friendly towai-ds Britain, and Italian , propaganda articles have entirely disap- | peared. ! The Egyptian War Minister, Mahmud iFahmy E1 Kissy, has ali-eady begun dis1 cussions with senior British and Egyptian j military officers regarding tlie role the i Egyptian army will play in view of the invasion.