the italian royal army had about 215,000 men in libya and in egypt, the british had about with another training in palestine. wavell had about at his disposal for libya, iraq, syria, iran and east africa. faced with frontiers guarded by about eight men to the mile, wavell concluded that a defensive strategy was the only feasible policy and intended to mount delaying actions at the main posts and hope for the best. the foreign secretary anthony eden convened a conference in khartoum at the end of october 1940 with emperor haile selassie, the south african general jan smuts (an advisor for the region with winston churchill), wavell and the senior military commanders in east africa, including lieutenant-general platt and lieutenant-general cunningham. an offensive strategy was decided on against ethiopia, including the use of [["[[patriots (ethiopia)|arbegnoch]]" ([[amharic]] for patriots), by the conference. in november, the british and commonwealth forces gained an intelligence advantage, when the [[government communications headquarters|government code and cypher school]] (gc & cs) at [[bletchley park]] broke the high grade cypher of the royal army in east africa. later that month, the replacement cypher for the "regia aeronautica" was broken by the combined bureau, middle east (cbme).