Aprit 1.
One of the most encouraging announce ments of recent months was that made by Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, the Commander in-Chief of the British forces in the Far East, when he said, on, the occasion of the arrival of new British reinforcements in Singapore, that "It is a cause of considerable satisfaction to be able to record that the situation in other theatres of war is so favourable that forces from so far distant as the United Kingdom can not only be spared for service in this area but can be transported safely in spite Press telegram from Rome carrying a resume of an article by Signor Gayda on the subject of Italy's role as an Axis pariner. Signor Gayda is commonly regarded as Mussolini's mouthpiece and his part seems to be to make statements which would be utterly ridiculous were they to emanate direct from Mussolini himself, who is being forced more and more to maintain an oracular silence utterly vociferous in its eloquence. 'There ix every reason why Mussolini should not make greater fool of himself than he has up to the present; but none at all why Gayda should not be permitted to amuse the world with his anties. In case the world does not know it, what Gayda's statements amount to is that the Tlalians, with a loss of nearly a quarter prisoners and casualties and the imminent collapse of the entire Ttatian Empire, have merely been engaged in leading the British on. That is the role which he alleges Italy has to play in the Axis's plan of campaign. Just where the British are! Being Ted does not appear, though it is beyond the lines on the Cyrenaiea frontier which the British had decided to hold. Tt is post which can be easily cut off by either Side, and ence is more a lability than an assd, as the Malians or Germans~or whoever Is at present in possession of It—may shortly {nd out. The real significance of the British foceupation of Cyrenalea ties inthe fact that It's the province of Libya over which the talions have exerted the most trouble. Tripoli. aula does not encourage the expenditure of much money in making it fertile, But Cyrenaica, fence the granary of Egypt and ihe Roman Em: pire, still possesses potentialities, The Italians Tong ago realised -this, and with their genius engineering. set about watering large tracts of the country with the hope of reconvertin comparatively desolate territory. into the oni fertile area it had been. The most hopeful area for such a transformation is the plateau between Benghazi and Tobruk, which does suffer from the extremely high temperatures which prevail in most of te rest of Libya, and also possesses a soil which can be cultivated Provided suflcient irrigation measures are un-Gertaken. At enormous cost, the Italiany un. farming" possible. Ut was yue of the most dsthat, hho drove off the plateau 80,000 pastoral great beulality, In order to make room Yor saltiers from Waly" itself Marshal Balbo, who succeeded Graziani at that time, prossed humanely. laid th feticient "system of coot Settlers 01 the plateau, And. dug wells, foundation for a prosperity of the whole area,_ which me British as a result of General wietories. The "part of Libya. upon which the Tallans spent sniliions of Tira and hey might have hoped to. reap dividends time, has been taken. tron them, The part that remains in their hands sot some strategic importance, it is true, but it will be for the British General Staif to decide when ther this strategic importance is great enough to cause them to launch another cam-Jpaign which might" well extend through he ferric heat of the Libyan summer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.