The Wells of Buna

It was all quiet on the continent of Africa last week. Only important development in the Kenya campaign was the withdrawal of British troops from Buna, at the mouth of the Moyale salient occupied by Italian troops (TIME, July 22, et seq.). Water is more important than steel in desert warfare. The British claimed that the water supply of Buna was sufficient for only a small garrison, and that the wells were within range of strategic hills from which the enemy could shell them. But what the British troops apparently feared more than thirst was a nutcracker attack which would flank Buna.

Later in the week a convoyed line of big troop transports reached Egypt after an uneventful trip from Britain all the way around Africa, up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal. The exact number of troops was not revealed, but unofficial dispatches spoke of "several thousand"--infantrymen, Australian aviators, nurses from Scotland and England, R. A. F. and naval reinforcements. Meantime Britain awaited the real Italian campaigns: against Egypt from Libya, against the Sudan from Ethiopia.

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