Mr. Eden's Rearm
It is likely to prove invaluable to the Government to have Mr. Eden's first-hand experience gained by his visits to so many theatres of war in the Near and Middle East. In these regions warfare on a major scale and a minor scale is either already being or is likely to be conducted, and there is call for action in many directions. There are powerful Italian armies which have entered Egypt from Libya, against which there are massed powerful British forces to deal with them. Farther south active warfare is going on both on the west towards Libya and on the East towards Eritrea. The war in Greece demands action directed from the bases in Egypt or Palestine, and in Palestine itself provision has to be made against possible enemy action. Mr. Eden has visited not only Cairo, the centre of the main activities, but the actual outlying centres in Egypt, the Sudan, Palestine and Transjordania, and he has met General Smuts on one of these occasions, and the Emir Abdullah on another. From the many scenes of fighting there will be com- peting claims for reinforcement, and from the leaders many suggestions as to steps that might be taken. Mr. Eden will be in a singularly advantageous position for weighing the pros and cons of this and that plan between which often a choice must be made. He has a vantage-ground from which to state the case for the soldiers with judgment when his opinion is sought by the War Cabinet. His mission is in itself evidence of the immense importance which the Government attach to the war in the Mediterranean; and it is clear that he returns full of confidence in the power of the army in Egypt to give a good account of itself.
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