Evening star., 1942-02-01
New African Arsenal
To Stop Axis Attacks
BY Mark Barron,
Wide World News.

able benefit Of the Fascist settlers In
Eritrea.
The treaty promised Ethiopia a free
port zone in Assab, tiny, miserable and
busy village on the coast of Eritrea, near
where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of
Alden. A caravan trail comes from the
interior OF Ethiopia to this outward
bound port and the Italians, in their
treaty Of alleged friendship, persuaded
Selassie to build good road along this
route.
Selassie kept his word. But before
Ethiopia could profit from this new trade
outlet the Fascists utilized Selassie's
road for what was their intention when
they persuaded him to build ia swift
route for their military forces in an
offensive against Adds Ababa.
Selassie's Revenge
Along with Selass1e's revenge today
for the Fascist violation of the Assab
treaty, this new base In Eritrea Is also a
belated revenge for Great Britain, Tur-
key and Egypt. Trade treaties made by
those powers were violated by the Ital-
ians when they first took section Of
Eritrea from Sultan Berehan in 1878.
The Italians quieted the Sultan's COM
plants with a gift of approximately
$4,000
Eritrea, about the size of PENNSYLVANIA
or Mississippi. is land burdened with
most of the hardships Of war even when
war isn't actually there. It's geograph-
ical position makes 1t an invaluable CEN
ter Of strategy and supplies If and when
the Axis forces attempt an offensive
against Egypt, Libya, the Russian Cau-
casus or even toward India and the Far
East
The logical centers for troops and
technicians, once they emerge from the
sweating cauldron that Is the Port Of
Massaua, are the cooler plateaus rising
toward Asmara. the capital, and toward
Cheren and Biscia. These three towns
are connected from the coast by a rail-
road, and the current dispatches from
Cairo say that plans call for construc-
ton Of other rail lines
This Is no romantic tropical land. The
blistering white and red sands and the
monotonous gray earth alternate in a
violent and depressing pattern as they
abruptly change like zebra stripes on the
trails from the shores Of the Red Sea
toward the cooler highlands where Ethi-
opia begins
Eritrea's narrow coast territory is 670
miles long. This mergeS into subplains
of about $500 feet and then moves up
ward to plateaus of about 1000 feet
elevation. Although these plateaus are
usually cool at night, they are violently
hot in the daytime. The plateaus are
broken up by arid valleys which are
hot day and night.
The country is not productive. In
normal times the colony imports three
times as much as 1t exports, the exports
being mostly coffee which the Eritreans
get from Ethiopians by trading them
salt taken from the Red Sea.
When I was there during the italian
Ethiopian war the whole of the Eritrean
Coast appeared to be a checkerboard Of
shallow depressions where salt sea water
was being dried under the equatorial sun.
The salt bar is regarded the same ss
money.
Massaua, with a normal population Of
about 5000 who manage to live In its
usual climate of 80 to 12o degrees, is
second in size to Asmara, which has a
normal population Of $4,000. These two
towns and Assab are the only centers
in the country large enough to be re-
garded as anything more than cross
roads villages.