DECISION NEAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 March 1941, Page 5

DECISION NEAR

CONQUEST OF ITALIAN EMPIRE SURVEY OF CAMPAIGNS. PROGRESS IN ABYSSINIA. > RUGBY, March 19. Surveying the series of east African campaigns as a whole, “The Times” says it is in its own way as brilliant as that of North Africa. “Apart from minor operations, the campaign began with outstanding success in the north, between Kassala and Agordat in Eritrea,” says “The Times.” Then at Keren the Italians found an extremely strong position where for weeks on end they have put up a stout resistance and contrived to hold up the advance on Asmara and Massawa. We initiated a gigantic turning movement from the north which made very rapid progress .at first, but has not yet succeeded in dislodging the enemy from the stronghold of Keren. “A short pause for reorganisation followed our crossing of the Somaliland frontier and then began a lightning offensive from the south which has already cost the enemy about 30,000 casualties in killed, wounded and prisoners, besides great quantities of arms and material. The operations in Italian Somaliland have now resolved into a process of mopping up and it cannot be doubted that the same is true of British Somaliland. “At the same time we have not failed to exploit, so far as practicable, other lines of operation. In particular, the Abyssinian patriot forces have made a rapid advance in the Moyale sector of the southern front, capturing Yavello, 70 miles north of Mega.

“The capture of Keren has been long delayed, but it is inevitable that it will, when it comes, almost certainly bring with it the hall-mark of some tens of thousands of prisoners and should open the way straight to Asmara and Massawa. If we can simultaneously secure Harar, we shall be nearing a decision, and the final phase in Abyssinia, which General Smuts described the other day as beginning, will be within sight of its end."