12 JULY 1940, Page 5

Dakar was, to the layman, an unlikely spot to find

the ' Richelieu ' in. Not quite everybody, indeed, could say on the spur of the moment where Dakar is. It is actually the chief port of French West Africa, lying at the very westernmost point of the continent, i.e., the point where Africa projects farthest into the Atlantic. That makes it extremely likely that we have not heard the last of Dakar, for if it becomes a base for enemy submarines, or French submarines turned enemy, it might obviously present grave dangers to the now considerable volume of British shipping taking the Cape route to the East. But many such dangers have been dealt with in the past and will be again.

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