"As we now know, the Germsns had no expectations of proceeding beyond Agedabia, They meant to engage our armoured troops and create a diversion to prevent the despatch of reinforcements to Greece whilst bringing over large forces from Italy and Sicily, "When they won their surprising success, they accepted it with organized audacity and pushed on into the desert, taking little thought as to what they should eat or drink on the morrow. They pushed on until they came up against the very heavy prop at Tobruk, and until they came to the large forces which guarded the frontiers of Egypt and lie back securely based on road and "There, at present, they have stopped. It would be foolish to carry the story further but as long as the enemy has a superiority i armoured vehicles they will have the advantage in desert warfare, although at present the air forces are about equal, For the invasion of Egypt with main force, enormous preparations would be required, A pipeline might have be made to carry an artificial river forward with the troops, Command of Sea "We are lying back on our fertile desert, which, incidentally, is the worst ground for armoured' vehicles, We have command of the sea, and the Germans cre confronted in Africa with problems far more difficult than any they have solved. Thisis all the more true while we are defending, as we intend to defend to the death without any thought of retirement, the highly defensive outposts of Crete and Tobruk.
"Crete has not yet been attacked. The strategic significance of Tobruk was obvious from the first, and any one can see how irresistibly it has imposed itself on the enemy intend to fight with all our for the Nile valley and the common of the Mediterranean. Our troops and resources will give a good account of themselves. Therefore, let there be no feather-beaded or defeatist talk about cutting our losses in the Middle East.
"As I said in December, when our situation in Egypt was far more critical than now, it is a case of deeds not words. Our generals on the spot believed that no superior German force could advance e! ely across the desert as soon or as quickly as they did, and that if they did advance they would not be able to es! abolish themselves.
"That, was a mistake, but anyone who supposes there will not be mistakes in war is very unreal and foolish. It has yet to be seen how the forces that have advanced will fare in the heavy fighting with all the hazards which still lie befor: them at no great distance, "When your enemy has five or six nes the regular army you have, when he is more adequately equipped and is much stronger in the air and in tanks, and when he lies in the centre of the war scene and can strike out in one, two or three directions simultaneously out of a choice of seven or eight, it is evident that your problem becomes rather difficult.
"It is not possible to avoid repeated rebuffs and misfortunes, and these we shall very likely have to go through for quite a long time, Our intelligence service was thought to be the best in the world in the last war, and it is certainly not the worst in the world today,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.