The Rome press, commenting on the concentration of Allied warships at Alexandria, Egypt, said the Allied naval units in the Mediterranean include a French naval squadron and three British battleships at present en route to Alexandria, Two British battle cruisers, one of them the Warspite, were said to have arrived inside the Mediterranean yesterday. The French battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasburg are at present at Oran, the reports said, while seven light and four heavy flotillas of British destroyers are sprinkled throughout the eastern Mediterranean, together with an unknown number of submarines, The greatest part of French light craft is in the Mediter ranean, it was said.
Authorized sources said they could not confirm or deny reports that Italian forces were concentrated in the Dodecanese islands in the ZEgean Sea, pointing out that this was military information, They did say, however, that the reports were considerably exaggerated, because, even in peace time, Italy has very strong forces in the Dodecanese, for whom it would not be necessary to rush reinforcements.
Italy Declared "Invulnerable"
The extreme Fascist newspaper "I Revere" yesterday declared there were seven reasons why Italy must be considered invulnerable from the military point of view. The newspaper declared that 8,000,000 Italian soldiers were ready for action.
"Italy is absolutely invulnerable," the article said. "We are certain not a single shell from an. English or French cannon can fall on our industrial centres or coast line."
The seven reasons for Italy's invulnerability cited by the daily were the following 1. The Adriatic is a closed sea.
2. A fleet of 121 submarines form an unbreakable chain from the Algerian sea coast to the Straits of Otranto.
3. The Tyrrhenian Sea is circum scribed by immense airports and patrolled by Italy's air arm, 4. From the Ionian Sea to the Tyrrhenian Sea there are operating six Italian battleships, 33 cruisers, 118 destroyers and 62 torpedo boats, 5. The Italian island of Pantel lena, between Sicily and Tunisia, separates the prospective enemy forces.
6. Italy's efficient. coastal defences are 7. Eight million bayonets sprout from Italian soil—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.