Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-23

stronger than any surface WarShlpS
with which the italians could offer
battle. The Italians capital ships.
which would have to stand the brunt
of any fighting. are four in number,
comparatively small, weakly armed
and protected, of pre-war design and.
even so, two of them are known not
to have been kept up to date or re-
novated and to be practically unfit
for service.
The British naval forces In the
Mediterranean could have made
mincemeat Of any squadron the
Italians could have sent against them.
From their positions the British could
have severed the vital communica-
tons of italy with the army in Africa
in "a hours. The largest military force
ever sent by European power to
Africa would have been cut off from
its vital supplies Of food, munitions
and petroleum..
The Italian reply was to send
strong army, accompanied by force
of long-distance airplane bombers,
to the North African colony of Libya.
The idea was that this army would
invade Egypt and cut the Suez Canal
communications by land.
Menace Not Really Serious.
In the private conversations which
highly placed Italian sympathizers
had with responsible British political
and diplomatic chiefs, much was made
Of this military threat to Egypt. Yet
no, serious expedition could march
across the arid deserts separating
Libya from Egypt inland. The only
way such an army could approach
Egyptian territory would be along the
Mediterranean coast itself, and here it
would be exposed to bombardment and
landing expeditions from the sea.
Nevertheless the Italian army in Libya
was represented as menace.
At the same time the Italian agents
attempted to stir up the Egyptian Ma
tionaliSt against Britain. The stirring
up was easy enough. for there has
been incipient unrest in Egypt against
Britain for half century. But II
once the guns began to shoot and
the Egyptians had to decide between
helping Britain and helping Italy,
there is no doubt as to their answer.
They may not love the comparatively
light rule of the British, but the last
thing the Egyptians mean to accept
is Fascist domination.
In the meantime the British gov
eminent began extensive dredging at
Alexandria Harbor to enlarge the
anchorage for heavy warships, and
extended the coastal railway along
the Mediterranean shore of Egypt
toward the Libyan frontier. Extra
troops, artillery and fighting airplanes
were rushed to Egypt. Then the
Italians began talking, needless to say
in private, of bombing attacks against
the British ships at Alexandria. There
was story going the rounds OF 100
Italian airplane pilots, sworn to ny
their bombing machines, loaded with
high explosives, and dive them down
onto the decks of British dread
noughts, committing heroic suicide
in the process.
But the nearest point in Libya to
Egvpt is over 800 miles distant. It
would be Just possible for the Caprioni
bombers to make the distance. But
thew would not be accompanied by
the fighting airplanes, their natural
escorts. because the distance is too
great for this type of craft to fly. If
thew reached Alexandria (and they
could not get to Haifa in any case)
thew would be met by the interceptor
airplanes specially designed for the
purpose of shooting down bombers In
the air.
New Guns Formidable.
More than hundred of these in
terceptors are now ready. Further
more. anti-aircraft gunnery had made
much progress recently in the British
navy. and the new multiple pompom
gun, capable of firing stream Of ex-
plosive shells into the air at a very
rapid rate, is a formidable weapon.
When the civilian politicians had
recovered from their first shock In
London, they began to ask awkward
questions of the lords of the adj
niralty as to whether it would be
good policy in the future to spend
money on new superdreadnoughts- q,