KENYA BORDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1940, Page 7

KENYA BORDER

EVACUATION OF MOYALE. The British retirement from Moyale, a frontier post on the border of Abyssinia and Kenya, was strategically inevitable unless large reinforcements were sent, and this would have been unwise, because no purpose could have been served by offensive operations in that particular zone when so many other spheres offered more attractive possibilities (writes the military correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald”). A well-defined escarpment named the Goro forms the Kenya-Abyssinian frontier, and its slopes favour the Italian defence. While it protects Abyssinia from this approach, it docs not open on to a desirable part of Kenya, leading as it does only to the desert of Golbo. which is strategically meaningless. The Italians are unfortunate in their land approaches to Kenya. If they come south from Abyssinia, they must traverse this Golbo desert;; if they attempt a westward passage from Italian Somaliland they must cross the desert of Jubaland, and. at the same time, weaken the defence of Mogadiscio and the lesser ports along the coast.

The loss of Moyale is thus merely a frontier rectification. To reach the strategic nerve centre of the railway that goes down to Mombosa, the Italians would have to traverse 400 miles of the most difficult country. Nevertheless, the psychological effect of the abandonment of even a frontier post on the natives, especially in the early stages of a war. cannot be wholly disregarded. The natives along the northern and eastern frontiers belong to the Galla and Somali tribes, and thus have affiliations with larger units across the borders in Italian territory. Apart from this difficulty on the remote northern frontier. Kenya should be well-equipped to meet any armed challenge. The arrival of Northern Rhodesian units on March a completed the concentration there of troops from every British East and Ccnlr.il African territory. The King's African Rilles, the Kenya Regiment of Volunteers. and the wider Kenya Defence Force, have all been strengthened since the war started for the threat

of Italy has given this colony a very special place in African defence. Moreover, the precautions have been evolved over a considerable period of time, and have been correlated with our general Middle Eastern strategy. That was the main reason why Air ChiefMarshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham was sent out as Governor long before the present war with Italy broke out.