Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-22
Southern Front

Southern Front
Eevpt is a land of fascination for
plotters of world conquest. The great
Alexander held Egypt. and so did the
ancient Romans at later date Napo-
leon dominated Egypt for three years,
and every schoolboy knows with what
inspiring words he called out to his
troops in sight of the pyramids: Forty
centuries look down upon you For
Napoleon the Egyptian campaign was
a step in his war against England. 1t
was luckless campaign, luckless chiefly
because of the success of the English
Navy. To a considerable extent the sit
uation in Egypt 14O years ago is being
peated-as much as history ever is
epeated-today.
The British Navy today is ready to
oppose the Italian advance, hoping for
as much success as the navy
Suez under Nelson had in routing
Drive the French at Abouklr Bay.
The Italian advance, on the
other hand. has aims that Napoleon
could not conceive Of In his time there
was no Suez Canal. In his time petro-
leum meant nothing to armies. The
axis wants not only the Suez, but also
access to the oil fields in IraQ, Asia, in
the valley of the Tigris and the Eu-
pirates, land controlled by England
across the broad desert of Arabia. War
today is a glutton for oil. The wells now
accessible to Italy and Germany do not
gush the black stuff out fast enough
to supply the planes and the trucks and
the tanks The oil in Rumania, now
for all practical purposes country
tributary to Germany, cannot quench
the thirst of Hitlers and Mussolini's
mechanical legions. The conquest of
Egypt is an essential preliminary to con-
quest of Iraq because in Egypt England
enjoys the use of bases for the ships and
planes that can thwart any threatening
gesture against Iraq.
Egypts western neighbor is Libya, and
Libya is an italian colony. Across the
-Libyan border last Monday the
van of the Italian advance already had
moved. Their initial progress was speedy
and the 10000 troops, advancing in a
temperature of 100 degrees made the
coastal town of Sidi Barrani, garrisoned
by British, so miles inside Egypt. II Duce
of Italy, Mussolini heard from his
marshal, Rodolfo GRAHAM that the mill
tary step had been carried out with con-
summate bravery and skill The marshal
said that British ground forces in Egypt
which is a neutral country-fed in
disorder before the on-coming Italians.
who already have shown their capacities
for fighting in Attractive years ago
in the war against Ethiopia and this
summer in the capture of British Somali-
land. The British departing from Sidi
Barrani said Marshal GRAHAM aban-
doned equipment along the desert roads.
losing more than half their tanks and
ermored cars and suffering from short
age of gasoline and water under the
bombing and machine-gunning of the
Italian air force
The Italian commander reported that
the soldiers of modern Rome had sur
prised the British, who had
Desert considered it impossible to
Warfare spring a military surprise
in the desert where cover
Is lacking to conceal troop movements.
The British concentrated their forces
south of Sidi Omar. some miles from the
Mediterranean coast of Egypt. The
Italians effected their surprise by send
Ing the. troops along the coastal road.
Some Italians proceeded beyond Sldi
Barrani to the oasis of Buqbuq, on the
road to Alexandria, to the Niles mouth
and to the Suez Canal-still $50 miles
away.
While the. Italians foxed the British
on the land in taking the coastal road.
they made themselves more vulnerable
thereby to the British sea and air as
saults. The navy and the Royal Air
Force went at once into action. The
guns of the Mediterranean fleet were
trained on new intrenchments being
built by the Italians and their Libyan
soldiers at Sid Barrani and on heavy
artillery pieces being brought up the
coastal road by truck. The Italian air
force battled the British planes and re-
ported some success in minimizing the
danger to the Italian land operation in
Egypt from British sky assaults. What
success each side had in these exchanges
is still a question.
Thus opened what may become one of
the major operations in the war which
already has profoundly affected the way
of life in every nation in Europe, dis
turbed the peace deep in Africa and set
the American nations to take unprece-
denied steps in their own defense against
the morbid likelihood that the war may
actually spread near the Western Hemi-
sphere. The country most Immediately
concerned, of course, was Egypt. Hassan
Sabry Pasha, Premier of Egypt, sat up
late at night with his cabinet discussing
the grave question whether Egypt should
go to war. That is question yet to be