Evening star., 1942-02-01

Editors Note: U. S. Brig. Gen.
Russell L. MarweH has just returned
to Cairo from Eritrea, Uhere bus
Ting military tDorkshop is being built
in that strange and brutal colony in
the north of Africa. 1t 1Dds captured
by the British from the Italians early
last summer and tDds recently turned
oDer to this country as q site for
United Nations arsenal in the Middle
East. Mark Boron, Wide World staff
tDriter, describes this land and its peo-
pie as he Sd,D them during his traDels
In Africa Dllile covering the Italian
Ethiopian Dar.)
It Is normally a desolate, sometimes
blood red and sometimes brooding gray
land which the United States is trans
forming in Eritrea, North Africa, into an
arsenal for the United Nations.
And 1t is another setback for Mussoltni
and his crumbling Fascist empire.
Brig. Gen. Russell L. Maxwell, who
is chief of the United States North
African Commission, said that work Is
proceeding according to schedule. This
former Italian colony is being converted
into manufacturing and assembly base
for tanks, bombers and other imple-
ments of war designed to stop all offen-
sives Of the Nazis and Fascists toward
the torrid shores of the Middle East.
With most of the lands and seas
around it controlled by British armed
forces, Eritrea is now well-protected
island" where these vital war materials
can be stored and assembled in antici-
patton of vast German offensive ex-
pected toward that region Of Africa in
the coming months.
With the British and American Navies
controlling the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, Eritrea is in a position that
can be reached by bridge of freighters
carrying war materials south around the
Cape of Good Hope and back north into
the Red Sea.
Ironically, the technicians are arriving
just in time to get the benefit of improve
ments the Italians have made in the
country since the Blackshirts started
from there the boomerang war against
Ethiopia.
And, what must be even more irritat-
ing to Mussolini, much of the labor to
build roads and assembly plants to speed
transportation of war supplies for the
United Nations will be composed of Ital-
ians and Askaris.
Italian Prisoners at Work
When the Fascist armies fled last
spring before the British onslaught
against Cheren. Eritrea, they abandoned
nearly 5000 Blackshirts as prisoners of
the Tommies. the Askaris, like the
Dubats in the Somalilands, are native
mercenary workers and will either work
or fight for anybody at salary of about
IS cents day.
On the same day that the italians lost
Cheren to the British they also lost
Harar, the Chicago of Ethiopia, SO
Emperor Halle Selassie can enjoy a
double smile of revenge as the bases in
Eritrea are used to strike hard at the
Italian foes and their Axis partners. For
it was in Eritrea that Mussolini first
broke his word Of honor in a. solemn
treaty with the Ethiopian government.
That was in 1928 when the barren
lands in Eritrea were not proving suf-
ficiently productive to make good the
glowing promises the Fascist government
in Rome made to Italian colonists who
were ordered to settle in Africa The
colonists wrote back to friends and rela-
tives in Italy about their disappoint-
ments. To stave of the growing dis
gruntled feelings at home, Mussolinis
cabinet proposed a trade treaty with
Ethiopia-designed to work to consider