A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 10

A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

The British and Dominion troops investing the Bartha area aic taking up positions for an attack. They are still being reinforced and their artillery fire has been intensified. A Turkish source suggests that their tactics will be to hammer a breach through one part of the defences rather than make a general onslaught. There has still been no indication of support by Graziani for the Italian gariison. Such passivity by the enemy is in keeping with the experience of the Royal Navy in its 3000-mile sweep of the Mediterranean earlier this week. Tt is reported that the only sign of enemy activity was a solitary floating mine which was spotted, and even Italian aircraft failed to show up at any stage. Despite severe winter conditions the Greeks continue to press the Italians hard in Albania. Their operations in the north, where the objective is Elbasaii, are progressing favourably, though the Italians are resisting with the full strength they have available. Farther south the Greeks have followed their important Christmas Eve victories with other successes of strategical importance and on the coast they are attacking beyond Himara. Appealing for the formation of a Balkan league to secure frontier inviolability, the Ankara radio says Turkey is willing to place ail its harbours at Bulgaria’s disposal. German troops are still reported to be entering Rumania in large numbers and heavy Russian concentrations on the Bessarabian border are also reported. The Royal Air Force has ended the longest lull in air activity in the west for three months by attacking Bordeaux and enemy aerodromes. Still the Luftwaffe remained inactive. With a winter fog and calm weather the conditions for an invasion were favourable over the Channel, and the recently intensified British alertness was maintained. There is increasing evidence that American consciousness of the need to give Britain the utmost aid possible is becoming fully awakened. Approving the President’s plan to lend or lease armaments to Britain, more than 150 prominent people in the United States have asked him to make it the country’s settled policy to do everything necessary to ensure the defeat of the Axis. The Australian Prime Minister announces that an enemy raider ■'heavily shelled" Nauru Island early yesterday morning.