We are undoubtedly entering upon a long and bitter campaign throughout all the Near and Middle East regions. From Abyssinia, where the Duke of Aosta has capitulated to British forces, and where other Italian armies are being captured. will be freed large numbers of campaign-hardened men; back into Egypt from Greece is now assembled those twice-toughened forces which eluded German capture; the Army of the Nile is being rapidly reinforced by fresh men and material from. India, South Africa, and the Dominions; and. all in all, Genera] Wavell has birorys forees with which to meet his act mittedly strong opposition, So when you see a great fuss and splash made of Axis moves and adventures in the Near and Middle East don't get the impression that it's all a one-sided show which might soon be over. We are taking heavy toll of enemy aircraft, and on the all-important enemy routes from Sicily to Tripoli and Benghazi we have sunk supply and ammunition ships which the enemy can ill afford to lose. Believe me when I say that the Axis attempt to drive the British out of the Mediterranean and its coastal regions is going to be a long and costly business for ihe enemy.
1 have already mentioned in passing the surrender of the Duke Vof Aosta's forces in Ethiopia. All but "finish" can now be written to kho campaign which has cost Italy the whole of its North-east African Empire, That is only a small part of the price she has paid for throwing her lot in with Hitler. True, he has "rewarded" her with the grant of Croátia, but one hears nothing now of the Italian cry for Nice, Savoy and Corsica. because the Nazis have bargained with Vichy at the expense of Italian aspirations, Hitler has got his grip not only on Sicily, but al. on Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Libya. Italy has lost a great deal of her navy has sacrificed large armies in and East Africa. It is not a iting balance sheet; in fact such a poor one that Mussolini ely lapsed into something very to silence,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.