"Now I come to February 8, which was the date our forces entered Ben-ghazi—a brilliant exploit which Drought a valuable gain. But with the supreme effort entailed by that advance. the armoured troops who hast ae large a share in it hind to rest and "There wax no prospect of pro euging the advance with those armoured vehicles beyond the point reached at Benghazi, and avy pro-Tonged advance by these, formations to Tripoli wag out of the question, "The previous plan had been to slop afler the capture of Tobruk and meet the western flank there, but s0 brilliant had been the success, snd 30 rear the disorganization of the enemy, that it was rightly decided to make rapidly the further brilliant Another consideration was that the harbour at Benghazi was then unusable, and its preparation must have taken some time, Meanwhile, any further advance would have hed fo be based on the small harbour at Tobruk, which, though good, is small, while our maih bose would of course have been that in the Delta:
"On February & there reached the British Government a note from the Greek Government confirming the ment (o resist German aggression.
us to fay what help we could tive, and conditions on which we could give it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.