A DELIBERATE ATTACK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 72, 7 January 1936, Page 5

A DELIBERATE ATTACK.

ACTING-LEADER'S ASSERTION. BARON VON ROSEN'S COURAGE. (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, January 6. "The Times" correspondent at Addis Ababa says that besides the three wounded from the Swedish Red Cross, which Baron von Rosen brought back to Addis Ababa,. Pastor Svenson, act-ing-leader of the Swedish unit, who is awaiting instructions from Sweden. Pastor Svenson describes the bombardment of the Juba and Gamaledonga valleys as continual and heavy, but usually ineffective, because the Italians blindly fire into the riverside palm belts in which the ' Abyssinians are taking refuge. ( Nugelli has been twice aerially attacked, the second bombardment resulting in 500 bomb holes. There were six deaths, and six houses were destroyed. Pastor Svenson corroborates the deliberateness of the attack on the Swedish Red Cross, and says that 10 'planes bombed and machine-gunned the Red Cross camp only, though it was specially roped off to prevent the entry of anyone except wounded Abyssinians.

Local airmen extol Baron vori Rosen's flight under most difficult conditions of load and altitudes, oyer unknown country, with inadequate maps, the most accurate of which showed that Nugelli was 28 miles off its actual position, in a plain, whereas it is surrounded by deep, gorges almost devoid of landing room. Baron von Rosen first picked a spot to land, after which he commenced the non-amharic-speaking natives who were covering him with rifles that he was not an Italian. He persuaded one to enter the second pilot's seat, and learned from him the actual whereabouts of Nugelli. He brought back films of the wreckage and the appalling condition of the wounded, taken by members of the unit.