Soviet moves to bolster the Ethiopian military regime, designed to improve its position relative to the United States, have brought Ethiopia and Somalia to the brink of war. In mid-June, guerillas of the Western Somali Liberation Front, backed by Somali army volunteers, moved into the Ogaden, which is fully one-third of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian army has been defeated in a number of engagements. Diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Somalia have been severed.

The Horn of Africa may seem remote and irrelevant to some of us. But it sits astride important sea lanes to West Europe and the United States Covering an area of some 750,000 square miles, the triangular-shaped Horn of Africa combines barren desert with fertile highland. Its three parts—Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia—have a total population of about 32 million. The Horn juts out into the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, overlooks the 20-mile wide Strait of Bab el-Mandeb and, beyond that, the Red Sea which stretches north to the Suez Canal. The sea route passing near the coast of Somalia carries 70% of the strategic raw materials imported by West Europe, over 50% of West Europe's imported oil and one-fifth of US oil imports.

At the beginning of this year the Soviet Union was well placed in Somalia. In 1963 - 64 the Somali government became involved in an irregular undeclared war to create a greater Somalia which would combine Somalia, parts of Kenya, the Ogaden and Djibouti. After being approached in 1963, the Soviet Union extended $35 million in military credits to Somalia and military advisers were supplied.

Following the military coup which swept away the old regime in 1969, the new Somali regime turned to the Soviet Union for economic and military and. Now the Soviet Union trains - about 60% of Somali officers and provides almost all Somali military hardware. A number of economic aid projects were provided: secondary schools, a fish cannery, hospitals, a printing plant, a radio station, a milk-prooessing plant and various agricultural programmes. In 1972 the Soviet Minister of Defence, the late Marshall Grechko, visited the capital Mogadishu to sign an agreement to build a hydroelectric power station on the Juba River near Fanole. Simultaneously he obtained the right for the Soviet Union to improve and use the airstrip and port at Berbera. The Berbera base gives the Soviet Union excellent air and naval facilities close to the world's main oil route.