ALLIES AND DAKAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 October 1942, Page 5

ALLIES AND DAKAR

QUESTION OF SEIZURE

VICHY REINFORCEMENTS (Reed. 10 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 20. Recent reinforcements, including naval units, increased DakaFs.white carrison from la,ooo to aO,OOO, says the British United Press. correspondent at Vichy’s str onghold. Soldiers, sailors and airmen jam the sheets. Women and children are leaving the town as transports bs £ ome Ax's propagandists have been busy foi-several 1 days predicting a second front at Dakar, and connect the visit of General Smuts to London, with lh The American semi-official “Navy and Army Journnal say&. What is in the German mind may .compelL us to co-operate with the British m sizing Dakar, which is even more important, since Brazil entered the waa. It could serve as a jumping-off place for planes operating against oux South American ally. The “Journal” adds: Vichy is ap prehensive that the United States will seize French Caribbean territories. They have reason tor their fear Negotiations with the GovernorGeneral of those territories have not been concluded. Doubtless, the prolonged delay in meeting our demands will cause us to act/ . Washington observers point out that unless the Americans intend m remain in Liberia as a protecu/e policv, the only place they could go by land would be across French sod. The London “Times s diplomatic correspondent says: Talk °L th e A- 1 " lied advance on Dakar is i idiculous, because communications between jungle-clad Liberia and the remainder of Africa hardly exist. The Berlin radio, quoting a wellinformed neutral, who has recent y arrived in Lisbon, after a long visit to Africa, said it was expected in British African colonies that the British-American attack against French West Africa will take place some time after the end of October, which is the beginning, of. tne dryseason, and a road linking the West Coast with Egypt will shortly be completed.

MADAGASCAR CAMPAIGN

FURTHER PROGRESS REPORTED

RUGBY, October 20. A communique from East African headquarters says: Early yesterday our forces advancing southward ot Ambositra on the road to Fianarantsoa, outflanked, attacked, and, within three hours, overwhelmed a considerable Vichy force holding strong positions at Ivato crossroads. we took 50 prisoners, includmg Colonel Motras, commander of the first Mixed Malagasy Regiment. Losses have been reported on our side. One of Motra’i; battalion commanders, Lieutenant-Colonel Pensereau, had previously fallen into oui hands. The total of prisoners taken during the operation ground Amoositra ' now exceeds 800, with two guns, a large number of mortars and heavy machine-guns. Our troops, well southward ol Ambositra, are clearing the road of the usual obstructions. A Vichy communique stales: the British attack on October 19 against positions in the Ambositra sector was preceded by a systematic bombardment, in which a thousand shells were dropped on our improvised trenches. Our troops, although hard pressed from every side, obliged the enemy to retreat.