For once the British made an effort to get there first: this week they announced that they were laying hands on Madagascar. Thus, on the heels of a Hitler-Mussolini meeting that seemed to presage some great new evil (see p. 29), and a parley of Madagascar-hungry Japanese diplomats in Vichy, the British anticipated one likely Axis move.
The Japs unquestionably wanted Madagascar, for Diégo-Suarez, the French naval base at the northern end of the island, is the key to the western half of the Indian Ocean. Diego-Suarez snuggles in a broad, lighthouse-studded...
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