CONTINENT AT STAKE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21183, 5 August 1940, Page 10

CONTINENT AT STAKE

BATTLE FOR AFRICA ANGLO AND ITALIAN SPHERES To sit down with a large scale map and study the strategic geography of North-East Africa is to realise that the present sporadic operations between British and Italian troops may, indeed, become the battle for a continent. Astride the Suez Canal and bordering the Red Sea is Upper Egypt, joined on the west by Italian occupied Libya. To the south of these territories lies the Sahara Desert, and operations have so far been confined to the north, near the sea-board. When Italy declared war British forces immediately crossed the border to Libya and captured two forts. Capuzzo and Maddelena. The present position is that the Italians have recaptured the forts with heavy forces and the British are harassing supply columns. To the south lies the vast bulk of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, its east coast being washed by the Red Sea and its western borders being French Equatorial Africa, and Belgian Congo. South again is the British colony of Kenya, which joins British Tanganyika to the south and east. Through a comparatively long coastline on the Indian Ocean, Kenya has direct access, through Mombasa, to the outside world. Italian Territories Italy has an important sphere of influence in the southern Red Sea area. Adjoining the British Sudan is Eritrea, with a long coastline skirting northern Abyssinia and extending south to join French Somaliland, headquarters of the strategically- | important town of Jibuti, port of the ! only rail route to Addis Ababa. Adjoining French Somaliland is British Somaliland, its coast on the Gulf of Aden, and also in a precarious position, as it is entirely surrounded by enemy-occupied territory, for to the east and south, sweeping round the coast to join Kenya, is Italian Somaliland. Control of Abyssinia places the Italians in a favourable position as regards Egypt, for in northern Abyssinia lies Lake Tsana, principal headwater of the Nile. By threatening to divert the flow of water down the Nile, thus cutting Egypt’s lifeline, the Italians have a potent weapon to restrain any adventures that the Egyptian Government may be disposed to undertake. This factor also lends colour to the statement made in the House of Commons that Britain is encouraging the flames of revolt that have broken out among Haile Selassie’s followers. To tie Italy’s hands again in Abyssinia, and ultimately to control the area round Lake Tsana, would be a decisive factor in th«w African campaign.