Evening star., 1942-05-03
Africa 5 importance
Grows as Il Becomes
Crossroads S Of War
Return Of LovuI to
Power Adds to Threat
From Continent
Wide World News.

Wide World News.
Africa, the least-known continent
on the globe, emerged from tn.
shadows and became a main cross.
roads of this war when pro-Naz
Pierre Laval took command o.
Vichy France.
Whoever controls that dark ano
tragic continent-notorious for its
slave trade, sleeping sickness anc
yellow fever-will control more sup
ply lines to more fighting fronts
than can be reached from any other
spot.
Over Africa fly United States
bon1bers and transport planes or
their way to the Middle East and tc
Russia.
Around Africa ply ships from the
United States and England to the
Middle East, to India. to Australia
tc routes leading to Russia.
Across Africa are being built roads
to shortcut shipping lanes, save
vital time. stretch shipping space
farther in the race to reach the
OlSU6IlJ war lIOIllS.
Strategically Located.
North Africa is the southern
shore of the Mediterranean Sea-
East Africa guards the alternate
sea roads to the Middle East and
It's oil. West Africa and its nearby
islands command much of the
South Atlantic Ocean, are within
Easy flying distance Of South Amer
lea.
Some military experts say that a
logical first step in winning the
war would be to clean the Germans
out of Africa. This would lessen
pressure on the Middle East, make
possible a concentration of United
Nations forces now thinly stretched
across great areas of the earth,
break the threat of a German juno
ture with Japan in India, and open
a vulnerable spot to strike the Nazis
through Italy and Greece.
Many believe fear Of such a ma
newer Is one reason why Berlin
forced Petain to accept Lavals re-
turn to power. In other words, Hit
aer reached for the north hump of
Africa because he was afraid some
one else would beat him to it. Pres
ident Roosevelt has mentioned Da-
kar, the westernmost point Of the
hump, as strategic outpost OF the
new world.
All else being equal the side
which holds Dakar has the best
chance of keeping It, Almost equal
distances separate it from the Amer
icas and from Europe. Almost equal
difficulties beset an invasion. the
sea on the one hand and the desert
on the other.
War Sprang From Africa.
1Avsl's new position may increase
Africa's Importance as cross roads
Of war. It might give the Germans
new trade route to get around the
Atlantic blockade.
The current war opened with ia
pans invasion of China a decade
ago, but the conflict spread from
Africa. The dictators were embold-
ened by Mussolini's seizure of Abys-
sinia. They tried out, their dive
bombers and their new machine war
tactics in the Spanish civil war,
which started with an invasion from
Morocco. They went back to Africa
to try to find an easy path through
the deserts to Suez.
From Morocco and neighboring
Algiers, the Germans have been
building supply lines to Dakar to
bond their new empire. Survivors
of Nazi cruelties tell stories OF
Frenchmen trapped by fraud into
work camps in the Sahara, there to
dig a railroad bed through iron like
earth in terrible heat, to su1er
burial alive for escape attempts, to
die unattended if fever struck.
If the railroad has been COM
pleted, the news has not been an
nounced but there is at least one
highway from Algiers to Dakar. And
the Germans began taking over the
Moroccan coast months ago.
Dakar has a double significance,
strategic and political. Strategic,
because it is the point OF the old
worlds land mass closest to the new
world. Political, because it is the
capital of French West Africa and
the seat of the governor general OF
that now pro-Nazi territory.
Harbor Well Protected.
Recent visitors say the harbor Is
protected with land batteries. en-
eircled by concrete pill boxes, pre-
pared with bomb shelters. A fort in
itself is the French battleship Richie
lieu, which has f1oated at Dakar
since the British and Free French
damaged it in their vain efforts TO
seize the port in 1910,
West Africa's Governor General
says:
Il defended Dakar against the
British. I will defend it hundred
times more so against the Ger
mans
But he also says:
"I am a good soldier. I will obey
the orders which I receive from
my commander and chief, Marshal
Petain.'
Whether the Axis will have trou-
bic holding Dakar and its interland'
French West Africa. is debated.
In the dictators' favor are: The
British. anti-French sentiment
of the Arabs, who make up almost
half of the West African popula-
tion: the fact that, although the
territory has no heavy industry, it
has metal working centers, arms
makers and repair shops for ships
and automobiles; the West African
crops, which have been plentiful
enough for a constant supply to
passing ships and might supply an
army of occupation; the 2,400 miles
Of railroads and $4,000 miles of
roads which connect Dakar with the
rest of the territory, West Africa S
encirclement of the British trans
Atlantic air terminals in Gambia
and Sierra Leone and its domina
tion of the tSpanish) Canary and
Portuguese Cape Verde Islands as
steppings stones westward across
tne sea.
Factors Against Dictators.
Against the dictators are: The pro-
Democratic sentiment Of the other