brigadier-general [[paul legentilhomme]], in command of british as well as french forces since the outbreak of war obstructed the enforcement of the armistice of villa incisa and continued to co-operate with the british. on 27 july, the terms of the armistice pertaining to french somaliland were discovered by the british to be the demilitarisation of the colony and free italian access to the port and the french part of the addis ababa railway. when the [[list of governors of french somaliland|governor]], [[hubert deschamps]] said that he would obey instructions from the [[vichy france|vichy]] regime, legentlhomme threatened to use force to prevent him. when the local italian armistice commission tried to make contact, legentilhomme assured cairo that he would play for time but anticipated that the italians would attack.