DJIBUTI SUFFERING

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22475, 9 January 1943, Page 6

DJIBUTI SUFFERING

Success Of British Blockade

Djibuti, port and capital of the small territory of French Somaliland, sandwiched in on the Gulf of Aden between Eritrea, Abyssinia and British Somaliland, has paid dearly in the past two years for the defection of France from the Allied cause and for its own official loyalty to Vichy. Now is it reported to have come over to the United Nations. During the various campaigns of the Italians, first against the Abyssinians and later against the British in Abyssinia, Djibuti w r as of great importance, for it is the terminus of the only railway to Addis Ababa. It was made considerable use of by Italy during the conquest of Ethiopia, and the restrictions placed on its use subsequent to September, 1939, proved extremely irksome to the Italians.

After the capitulation of France in the middle of the following year, the loss of the support of French troops in French Somaliland, based on Djibuti, enabled the Italians to make a successful two-fronted attack on British Somaliland. Under the original scheme of Franco-British co-operation, the French forces in Djibuti were to hold the right flank, the pivot of the whole situation in North-east Africa. With the defection of the French forces, more than half the Allied force was neutralised. The British fought a delaying action with a small force, inflicting the maximum losses on the enemy and finally evacuating from Berbera in August, 1940. Tills reverse to the British was not to last long, however. Under the general command of Sir Alan Cunningham, forces drove from the Sudan and Kenya into Abyssinia, from Egypt down the Red Sea coast into Eritrea, and from Kenya and British East Africa into Italian and British Somaliland. In a series of great victories from March to May, 1941, the Italians were driven out from or forced to capitulate in all these territories.

Djibuti then became a small island of Vichy French territory in the mass of British-held North-east Africa. The British Government was compelled to take what Mr Anthony Eden described as “appropriate steps to ensure that the resources of French Somaliland were not placed at the disposal of enemies,” probably referring to the possibility of its being used as a base by submarine and other raiders which remained at large for some time in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea entrance.

The measures referred to were tentamount to a blockade, and from time to time the Vichy Government protested to Britain and the United States concerning the sufferings of the French population.