The War against Italy
The first results of Italy's intervention are surprising. Except for some activity in the air her attitude has been almost entirely passive. In Libya, which it was expected would be used as a base for an attack on Egypt, the Italians have suffered severely at the hands of the Royal Air Force, particularly at Tobruk, they have lost several hundreds of troops in the course of British raids from Egypt, and have nothing to set against it but two partially successful air-raids on Mersa Matruh and Sollum, on the Egyptian coast. Italian garrisons in Eritrea, Italian Somali- land and Abyssinia have suffered in varying degrees. Genoa, Milan and Turin have been repeatedly bombed, the latter town, which is the centre of the Italian munitions industry, suffering heavily according to French reports. At sea an Italian sub- marine has, it is true, sunk the old British cruiser ' Calypso '; on the other hand several Italian submarines have been destroyed. Malta has been repeatedly bombed and many civilians killed, but the military damage appears to be negligible. What the effect of raids on Toulon and Bizerta has been is not known. Everything points to the importance of developing attacks on Italy by land and sea by every means possible. Her weaknesses are palpable, and she is both vulnerable and accessible as Ger- many is not. Allied plans for more aggressive action have no doubt been formulated ; their successful execution would have valuable political results in the whole Mediterranean region. One obvious and valuable move would be to facilitate the return of the Emperor Haile Selassie to Abyssinia to co-ordinate resis:ance to Italy there, as only he could.
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