ABSTRACT
The stage is fully set for a return next month to consideration of the fateful oil sanction. Italy’s bête noire, Eden, is now in full command of Great Britain’s foreign policy and all Europe is looking to his lead. . . . The Renown, a super museum piece, is leaving her sister ship Hood at Gibraltar and due here herself in a day or two to join this really remarkable array of naval strength, which is in the pink of condition for killing and being killed, and backed by coast defences which have been perfected for months, flanked by wire and trench systems from the Mersa Matruh – Siwa line to the western gates of Alexandria – these held by I cannot say how many British and Egyptian troops, and protected overhead by squadron upon squadron of ’planes which the freighters have been ceaselessly unloading here, in addition to the complements of two colossal aircraft carriers of the Fleet Air Arm. All this is defensive awaiting attack.1
