A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 112, 5 February 1941, Page 9

A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

The Imperial and Allied offensive against Mussolini’s armies continues relentlessly and successfully. On the latest reports the enemy have failed even to attempt a counter-attack except at one point in Albania. The town of Barentu in Eritrea has now fallen and the Italians, their first main interior defence line having been smashed, are being pursued through rough country in the direction of the capital, Asmara Covering 'this advance, the British in west Abyssinia are keeping up their pressure. Gains are also reported on the southern fronts.' In Libya the situation is generally unchanged. Ihe Loyal Air Force has been active over all the African fronts. By the capture of the mountain range dominating the road from Kelcyra and Valona to Berat, the Greeks are said to have won the strategic key to the whole of southern Albania. The Greeks now have the opportunity for wide-scale action, lhe only Italian counter-attacks reported were against heights beyond Kelcyra. Air raids over Britain have been on a small scale, the enemy planes operating singly. London had a short alert, the second in 15 days. . . Behind a mass of reports, rumours and conjecture on riencltGerman relations lie obviously highly important developments, lhe principal claims made by observers are that Marshal Petain, in reply to a German demand for the use of the French Fleet and the Norti African naval base of Bizerta has warned that the fleet and the colonies will join the British cause if threatened by the Nazis, anc that the Germans are pressing for a “Quislingite . one-paity Fiencli administration in which Laval would be prominent. The \ tchy Naval Minister has announced that his fleet will defend itself from attack “from any quarter.” The debate' on the Aid to Britain Bill has begun in the U.S. House of Representatives and will be restricted to three days- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is still hearing evidence on the Bill.