At the end of December 1939, Dickinson submitted the enclosed despatch to the Under Secretary of State at the War Office, John Lyttelton, his first since his appointment as General Officer Commanding the Forces in East Africa in August. He details his thorough preparations and the situation in East Africa in the four-month-old war. The original copy of the Despatch can be found at The National Archives, London, WO 276/378. This publication includes an introduction by Gerry van Tonder explaining how the East Africa Force came to be.