Active discussions at War Cabinet last night about the Middle
East. I spoke freely about the Benghazi business. It is admitted
that Wavell [1] completely under-estimated the speed and power of
the German attack and I think that we must be prepared for further
withdrawal. The trouble, as I pointed out to Cabinet, is that our
Generals consistently under-estimate Germany's capacity.

Wavell is doing everything possible to block the advance but it
would be plainly out of the question to weaken the position still
further by taking away Australian troops now there.

It is recognised that this means some weakening of Lustre forces
but as compensation for this you must take into account that
Yugoslavia, which seemed out of the picture two weeks ago, is now
our ally, is fighting vigorously and may well embarrass the whole
Italian position in Albania. It cannot be said that anybody feels
happy about the business but, like you, I have never been able to
see that we could afford to desert Greece.

The Libyan affair is bad but navally we have been improved by
battle of Cape Matapan [2] and, as I indicated in my earlier
cable, air reinforcements are going forward pretty satisfactorily.

I have strongly urged the maximum reinforcement in relation to
antiaircraft guns and anti-tank guns, in neither of which we are
very strong.

We must prepare our minds for some reversals, but at the moment
the position in the Balkans, though obscure and dangerous, is
better than we could have hoped for a few weeks ago.

I hope to see Eden [3] on his return this week and can then get a
first hand picture for transmission to you.

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