Imperial Valley Press

FINANCE

British Air Raids Aimed at Halting Supplies to Italian Soldiers

By J. W. T. MASON
United Press War Expert

British air raids over Tobruk on the Mediterranean coast of Libya point to efforts to impede Italian supplies reaching Mussolini's forces in north Africa. Tobruk is the principal naval harbor of Italian north Africa, the only port where large draught Italian vessels can unload heavy materials for military use in Italy's north African campaign.

If Tobruk were made untenable for Italian shipping, communications between Mussolini's north African empire and the mainland would be severed, except for air transport. This objective forms the secondary part of British strategy in the Mediterranean.

The major purpose of British Mediterranean operations is to keep the sea locked at the Gibraltar and Suez ends so that supplies from abroad cannot reach Italy. To the present the British fleet has succeeded in making this plan effective. No vessel bound for Italy from any port beyond the Mediterranean area can reach its destination.

There has never been a closer blockade than the one Great Britain is now enforcing on Italy not a simpler one to Britain. The Mediterranean is practically an inland sea and by holding control of Gibraltar and the Suez canal, Great Britain really commands the waterway. Italy's only means of breaking the blockade would be to challenge the British fleet to combat and defeat it.

The Italians have shown no desire, however, to take the initiative in a naval engagement. Italian warships are speedier than the British in almost all classes, though not so powerfully armed and armored.