Island Revisited

No people was more surprised than the British, when the British Army last week opened a new assault on Madagascar. Last May British troops had landed on the island. With a little fighting and few losses they had soon taken Diego-Suarez and territory surrounding that naval base, chief port of the big French island. The British thought then that Madagascar was safely in British hands. But they were mistaken.

Not until a communique announced renewal of the assault on Madagascar did most of the public realize that Madagascar had never been under effective control of the United Nations. Britain's conquest had come to an abrupt halt after the invaders finished, mopping up scattered French resistance in the hills rimming Diego-Suarez Bay. For 1,000 miles southward through the rest of the island Vichy-french officials had not come to terms. Last week the British really got down to taking control of Madagascar's ports, mineral wealth and agricultural resources.

Failure of a Courtship. "His Majesty's Government had hoped," the new communique intoned, "that the Governor General of Madagascar would allow the British command to take such steps as they considered necessary in order to deny to the Axis . . . facilities ... in the island." A report said the British, after their first attack, had attempted to woo French colonial administrators with honeyed words and attractive trade agreements. The British had also promised that pensions and salaries to all French officials would continue after the British took over. Renewed military operations were an admission that the courtship, tainted with a strong odor of appeasement, had been a failure.

Worse, the intervening four months had given the Axis, Japan in particular, time to use Madagascar for refueling submarines that prey on shipping through the 250-mile-wide Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African coast. German agents had filtered into the island to stir native resistance against the British. Japanese planes had scouted the territory unchallenged. The radio at Tananarive, Madagascar's capital, had kept up a steady chatter of Vichyssoise, inveighing against Britain, the U.S., Jews and De Gaulle, giving prominence to every Axis victory.

The second attack opened when fleet units and the R.A.F. shelled and bombed three key points along Madagascar's irregular western shore. Under cover of Navy guns, landing parties were soon ashore driving toward Morondava, Majunga and Ambanja, which fell with little opposition. A few days later British forces were well on the road to Tananarive, this time to mop up Madagascar for good.

The State Department quickly issued a statement giving U.S. approval. Said an informed source: "If we had let them stay there our supply lines would have gone to hell. It was high time that we moved in and rousted them out."

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