AID TO EGYPT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 98, 28 April 1939, Page 11

AID TO EGYPT

BRITISH ASSURANCE DEFENCE IN EMERGENCY. CAIRO, April 25. ■ The Premier, Mahmud Pasha, anI nounced to-day in Parliament that i Britain had given an assurance that in I the event of an emergency the Egyptian land, sea and air forces would receive sufficient help io enable them to defend their country adequately. These assurances were already being implemented. While Egv t *. hoped I for peace she was taking all | recaui tions and would not oe taken uni awares, added the Premier. j Writing in the Spectator, G. L. I Steer, a well-known journalist, re- ‘ cently declared that Britain's defenIsive organisation in Egypt was weak, that Italy could without difficulty dcl tach 40,000 men for an attack outside the boundaries of Italian East Africa, and that, whereas the French had built a little Maginot Line and reinforced the garrison of French Somali'land, “the defencelessness of the ;Sudan had to be seen to be believed.” ;An absolute maximum of 10,000 men, I including two British battalions, could be mustered to defend il, and 3000 lof these would take a week to conIcentrate. the aircraft available were [old Vickers-Vincents and only a squadi ion of them was there, while between I Khartoum and Kassala stretched 300 ' miles of open, easy country. Though I the Italian infantry were poor maiterial compared to the Sudanese, the I situation must be gauged in terms of material and lire-power, and shortage ■of supplies would force the Italians to .make a thrust in the effort to join iup with the Libyan bases. Mr. Steer ; argued that a British division should be posted in the Sudan and that this Would reduce the Italian threat to nothing, and avoid “the terrorising ot Egypt into neutrality."