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Pre-war plans were based on the idea that the standing French colonial forces would hold the lines until the British Empire could swing into action. It was foreseen that it would take at least a year for the demilitarized empire to be able to make use of its immense human and material resources. Some 100,000 French troops were therefore concentrated in Syria and probably twice as many in the colonies west of Libya, plus 1,000 airplanes. The troops in Syria were to defend the Suez Canal against the expected attack, while the Tunisian forces slowly made their way into Libya. Only in the Light of these facts is it possible to understand the problems created by the defection of France. The defense plan collapsed within forty-eight hours, and the British were left to face the whole force of the Italian armies, which numbered more than 200,000 men in Libya alone.

The next three or four months, possibly as many weeks, will decide the fate of the world. If Nazi airplanes succeed in doing to Britain what they have been able to do to Belgium, Holland, and parts of France and if Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler manages to land a sizable expeditionary force, the fight will be over and Hitler will stand master of the world. Theoretically, there would still be the British Empire to carry on the struggle, probably the empire would not lack the courage to do so, especially if the crown and the British government took refuge in one of the dominions. Actually, however, the empire without Britain would be completely ineffective. It is not only that hitherto Britain has coordinated the various parts and given them a certain amount of unity, more significant is the fact that Britain is the sole surviving possible point of attack against the Nazis.

Now that oratorical declarations of loyalty are over, the important question emerges: Can the dominions and colonies of the British Empire make a significant contribution to the struggle which they have made their own? For not one of the dominions has a war machine comparable even with the second-rate machine Poland was able to put in the field; not one of the colonies has a military organization approaching that developed by dictator Benito Mussolini in his African possessions. For the next six months or so England will receive little aid of any value from the empire. Indeed, it will find the empire a liability.