MIDDLE SEA BASES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 34

MIDDLE SEA BASES

IMPORTANCE OF GREECE

Outspoken comments on the presentday strategical situation in the Mediterranean are made by an Italian naval officer, Signor Fioravanzo, in a newlypublished book on the world's naval bases, writes Hector Bywater in the "Daily Telegraph." In his view France occupies a commanding position in the western- basin. of the Mediterranean. Britain stands sentry over the western and eastern gateways—Gibraltar and Suez-Haifa—but her position in the central Mediterranean is jeopardised by the insecurity of Malta. He considers Italy to be the strongest factor in the central basin, besides being more powerful than France or Britain in the eastern sector. Moreover, thanks to her Sardinian bases, she could exert strong pressure in the western area. -He adds: "If. Italy possessed; nir supremacy she would be mistress of' the entire Mediterranean." - Of Spain the author writes: "From the naval and strategic point of view this country occupies a key position. An allianc 2 with Spain which gave her allies the' use of Spanish bases would be of supreme importance to any om3 of the three Powers." THE AEGEAN ISLANDS. Turning to Greece, he finds that her bases at Salamis and Salonika, together with the numerous anchorages and hiding places among the Aegean Islands, constitute a strategic network of great value for all operations in the eastern Mediterranean. "An Italo-Grecian alliance would' be advantageous to Italy in the defensive sense. On the other hand, any grouping of Powers which gave Britain and France the use of the Grecian bases would mean the complete strangulation of Italy." ■ Signor Fioravanzo considers the Indian Ocean to be "a purely British sea," dominated by Simonstown, South Africa, Aden, Karachi, Singapore, and the Australian bases. He holds the Italian bases of Massawa and Assab to be relatively unimportant, as they are situated in the Red Sea and not directly in the Indian Ocean. • ; He concludes his study as follows: i "As the Mediterranean is the only sea which unites three continents, it is ths : theatre of countless, conflicting interests. As such it may become the setting for the last act of a final settle- | ment."