“TENSE EXPECTANCY”

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21225, 23 September 1940, Page 6

“TENSE EXPECTANCY”

“Tense expectancy” which is said to exist throughout French North Africa may have a very powerful bearing on the Italian venture into Egypt. It may be assumed that the Italian Libyan army delayed the offensive until it felt assured that Morocco, Algeria and other French territories in the neighbourhood had resigned themselves to the armistice terms with Germany and Italy. It may yet be discovered that Italy moved too soon. Reports which have reached Madrid from Morocco suggest that a decision by all French North Africa to accept an offer of British protection is possible in the near future.

The implications are plain. Italy has withdrawn her main Libyan forces hundreds of miles eastward to the Egyptian border in preparation for the invasion. It is reasonable to assume that western Libya’s defences against Tunisia, Algeria and French Morocco are comparatively weak. If the French colonies come to the aid of Britain, Italy’s North African position might become extremely acute. Mussolini has probably not counted on the possibility of having the rear of his invading army menaced or upon the chance of having to fight on two fronts in defence of Libya. If the collapse of the French resistance in France was damaging to the Allied cause, the return of the French colonies to the banner of the Allies might prove equally disastrous for the Italian campaign in North Africa. Wholesale arrests are reported to have been made in North Africa by the orders of the Vichy Government, but sympathy for General de Gaulle’s Free France is said to be widespread and to be becoming more and more difficult to suppress. Moreover, many of the arrests are’ alleged to have been made reluctantly because the French officials are half-hearted in their administration of the Vichy policy. With the territory comparatively safe from the Italian threat it will be surprising if developments do not follow quickly. It can well be understood that submission to foreign domination by undefeated colonial forces is extremely unpopular, and if Britain can offer them a prospect of regaining independence and at the same time releasing France itself from the yoke, there will surely be thousands ready and eager to seize the opportunity.