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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 basis of Italy was laid in 1935, and now the superstructure has developed in the interim. It is an Italy with an insatiable thirst for power and for expansion, an Italy with a nationalism that, probably for the first time since the establishment of the regime, has become definitely and visibly pernicious, an Italy for which the earth is just too small. On the other hand, it is a hungry Italy, an Italy in which the standard of living has visibly declined, in which there is more restlessness, more criticism of the regime, and more fear than ever seen before. Italy's financial condition has certainly deteriorated during the past three years. The two wars and the preparations for a third have fallen heavily on the shoulders of the people. Italian economic life is now practically conducted on a war basis.

The Arab strike, which lasted six months, is over; violence, too, has temporarily subsided. The 30,000 soldiers whom Great Britain has dextrously slipped into Palestine will maintain order as a side duty, until something happens. A leading Arab said to the author that either a European war will break out in a year or two or it will not. If war comes, people shall have their chance because England will not be able to keep so many soldiers here. A Royal Commission will soon arrive to investigate the last outbreak and suggest a solution that will prevent bloodshed in the future. But Palestine has had commissions in the past. They have issued voluminous reports but they have not brought peace. Neither Arabs or Zionists are optimistic about the results of the new commission. British commissions are designed to safeguard British interests, not to help the country.

In recent developments in the Mediterranean statesmen and publicists are convinced that the occupation of Albania will turn out to be even more costly to Benito Mussolini than the occupation of Czechoslovakia has been to his opposite number in Germany. During the Ethiopian crisis in 1935 the British fleet scuttled out of Malta without waiting to count ten. Had war broken out, it would likewise have had to abandon Alexandria, where it had taken shelter. All Egyptian bases including the Suez Canal were then undefended, Italian submarines and bombers would have met very little resistance. Indeed, British naval officers made no secret of their intention to clear out of the Mediterranean in case of hostilities and take up a position west of Gibraltar.