BRITISH DECISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1940, Page 5

BRITISH DECISION

FOLLOWING ON STUDY OF ALTERNATIVES ' HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED ON ENEMY. THOSE OF DEFENDING FORCE MUCH LIGHTER. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 1.5 a.m.) RUGBY, August 19. A War Office communique states: “The original Allied dispositions in Somaliland were based on a scheme for close Franco-British co-operation. Under this scheme, the French forces in Jibuti were to hold the right flank — the pivot of the whole position. With the sudden secession of the French Government from participation in further hostilities, a new and grave situation was created. “More than half of the available Allied force had been neutralised and it became immediately necessary to decide upon the most effective measures for dealing with the emergency. Various alternatives were open to us —we could reinforce British Somaliland in sufficient strength to ensure its safety,

but to do so would have involved employing important reserves and thereby weakening reserves in other theatres of war more important to our immediate war effort than Somaliland. The time factor was also serious. Consideration of this plan, therefore, wss reluctantly abandoned. Another alternative was immediate and unresisting evacuation. This meant giving up a British territory without fighting, and thereby losing the opportunity of inflicting losses on the enemy in men and material which it will be difficult for him to replace. “The third course was to remain with our small force, using it to inflict maximum losses on the enemy until withdrawal became inevitable. This third course was chosen and the evacuation of Somaliland has now been successfully completed. Our force has been withdrawn. All guns, except two lost in earlier stages, of the action, have been embarked. A great part of the material, stores and equipment has also been evacuated, and the remainder has been destroyed. Our wounded have 1 been safely brought away. British, Rhodesian, Indian, African and Somali troops, working in the closest co-operation with the Navy and R.A.F., have carried out the role assigned to them, with conspicuous skill and bravery against greatly superior strength. “The enemy losses particularly among, the Black Shirts units, have been heavy and out of all proportion to our own.”