WELL IN HAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 82, 7 April 1941, Page 8

WELL IN HAND

SITUATION IN LIBYA

ENEMY HELD UP

NO NEED FOR ANXIETY

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

LONDON, April 5

A Cairo headquarters communique states that in Libya the enemy columns advancing eastward from Benghazi have been successfully held and the situation is well in hand.

It is now known that General Garibaldi commands the Italian and German forces in Libya.

According to a military spokesman in Cairo, there is not the slightest cause for anxiety over Benghazi.

"Let the Germans come as far as they like," he said. "We are choosing our own battlefields, as we did when Marshal Graziani advanced in the autumn. It would have suited us better and caused less trouble if we had been able to defeat the Italian army on the Egyptian frontier instead of trekking to Benghazi. Cyrenaica, if anything, is a liability. We would have been happy to defeat the enemy at Sollum instead of Benghazi."

The Middle East correspondent of the. Press Association says that General Wavell is quite confident of coping with the situation. A Berlin report says that the German army corps has begun a drive towards Derna. Military circles in Berlin state that the offensive will be carried through at considerable speed. The German force in North Africa is believed to comprise four divisions of crack troops, fully mechanised and .equipped with the latest weapons. CONFIDENCE IN WAVELL. ""in Britain there is profound confidence in General Wavell and quick appreciation that he is not a man to waste lives or material in an effort to prevent now, for reasons of prestige, enemy gains which he knows he can nullify at less cost later when and where he chooses. Commenting on the evacuation of Bsnghazi, "The Times" finds that the news of the abandonment of this town created a disagreeable surprise, though the public are fully confident that the decision taken by the Commander-in-Chief was correct and strong-minded. It thinks that the German strategy has been ingenious as well as bold, and much will depend on the ability of the German command to maintain the momentum. "The Times" concludes that there is no reason for lack of confidence as to the final outcome of this German intervention in North Africa. ■