World War, SOUTHERN THEATRE: Push into Eritrea

British Empire forces, which had driven 70 miles into Eritrea from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, last week took Agordat (see map, p. 23). This town, 2,000 feet up on the Eritrean plateau, is strategically placed at the junction of a railway to Massaua on the Red Sea and a new highway to Addis Ababa. Agordat was defended by one Italian division. In taking the town, the attackers claimed “many hundreds of prisoners,” but the Italians were not entirely surrounded, and the main body retreated into increasingly mountainous country behind Agordat.

With Agordat in their possession, the British were set to cut off Northern Eritrea and eventually squeeze Ethiopia. Against the day when the Ethiopian squeeze might be applied, Negus Haile Selassie and Crown Prince Asfa Wassan, a slim lad of 24 who divorced his wife be ause her father submitted to the Italians, rallied their compatriots.

In their Eritrean push, the British used a skill which was more than tactical. The region around Agordat is inhabited by a tribe of pure Hamites, direct descendants of ancient Egyptians, in religion mostly Moslem. There are also quite a few Indians in Eritrea. They do not like their Italian any more than any other white masters.

With their great experience in ruling native populations, the British staged their attack on Eritrea largely with Indian troops — also mostly Moslems. These troops not only fought fiercely against the Italians; they were well received by the natives. It also looked well to the whole Middle Eastern Moslem world, which is already largely pledged to Britain although Signer Mussolini declared himself Defender of Islam in 1937. In the East the British had once more reversed their old maxim, Divide and Rule, to read: Unite and Revolt.