ETHIOPIA WAITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 231, 1 October 1935, Page 7

ETHIOPIA WAITS.

RESIGNED TO WAR.

HOPES OF EARLY PEACE

EMPEROR JOINING HIS ARMIES

(By LAURENCE STALLINGS.)

ADDIS ABABA, August 30.

Ethiopia is resigned to a war, but the Government is continuing to make its protests to the League of Nations, trusting that though hostilities may begin it may be possible in Geneva to bring about an early peace.

To-day the Emperor Haile Silassio attended a religious service for what is believed to be tbe last time before his departure by aeroplane for the Tigre frontier, where he will join his armies. Thousands of people from all over the countryside had been standing in the rain since dawn around the poor little church in the centre of a eucalyptus grove. To-day is the 50th anniversary of the canonisation of the patron saint of the Imperial House of Ethiopia. Many country notables, escorted by a motley armed retinue, including their first-born sons, who were sometimes under six years of age, staggered up to tlio altar carrying ancient Turkish and •Russian rifles, though some of them also had modern weapons like Wetterlis, Mausers and Lebels.

Regular soldiers were conspicuously absent from tlie service. There was nothing martial about it and the obvious devotion of the congregation struck the onlooker. The church was filled with wailing, kneeling women and. an instrument like a huge bass drum maintained a steady throb which synchronised with one's heartbeat.

Tho men, mostly Coptic shepherds, stood njotionless and grim, after unslinging tlieir rifles and kissing the stones of the cliureli walk, where the Emperor had passed wnen, in accordance with custom, he had circled tlie church three times. Restraint for Guerillas. A visit to the military schools, where officers are being trained under foreign instructors, convinces me that everything will depend on the ability of the Abyssinian generals to restrain their guerilla forces from attacking the enemy columns until the invading forces are well into difficult territory. The training here in the work of mountain artillery, machine guns and automatic rifles is looked upon as a task intended more for the purpose of impressing platoou commanders witli the terrific destructive power of these weapons in the hands of the enemy in the event of tribal chiefs deciding to attack by daylight without being | equipped with similar arms.

On the Ethiopian plateau the people, who have a tradition of centuries in avenging their own wrongs, ;an with difficulty be persuaded to witness daily without moving the enemy advancing and invading tlieir own homes. Only when the enemy moves with long lilies of communication for the transport of ammunition, water and ambulances, the foreign officers declare, will Ethiopia begin an effective strategic defence of tlie country. Provided the enemy should advance from both frontiers, with Addis Ababa as tho objective from the Red Sea and Harrar as the objective from Somalilaiid, then tlie two long columns must meet, tlie only chccks being the great rivers and mountain defiles. Emperor's Chief Task. Tlie Emperor alone, in the opinion of observers, can restrain the pugnacity of a people which has been universally in the habit of bearing arms since babyhood. The frontier chiefs and petty ra ses (lords) are hurt in their pride when regular troops arrive in the border territories, because the local magniflcoes think themselves and their retainers (a crude militia) able to turn the trick and beat any force single-handed. Tho chief task of tlie Emperor now will tax the personal attainments of this diplomatic ruler in the paradoxical task of preventing his own subjects rising en masse to drive the invaders out of the homeland. If His Majesty is successful in this arduous mission of restraining his guerilla forces and regimenting them to operate reasonable tactics conforming with the general strategy of the High Command, he thinks that Abyssinia will be capable of continuing the war fof two years, if necessary, without recourse to extraneous aid.

The last arms census of Ethiopia was made by the Italians, who allotted live rounds for each man. I have had the temerity to inspect the cartridge belts which are the universal decoration of the Ethiopian peasant and hold together his toga virilis. I found that even a simple peasant has 2D live rounds in his possession, although the general decorative scheme demands that a holt should be filled to capacity, even with empty cartridge cases. Thirty-five kilometres north of the city Swedish officers are conducting a mountain artillery school. The training carried out is along the lines of night attacks and combat groups rather than fighting by company units. I was permitted to visit the classrooms where instruction was conducted in French.

The class for light field guns was carlied 011 according to the regular European methods, with a sand table and the discussion of problems relating to indirect fire. The vocal replies of the cadets seemed to me alert and vigorous. Difficult Frontier Terrains. The instructors, however, laid the most important stress upon night patrols harassing the lines of a European army invading a difficult country, in which communications were widely extended. It should be remembered that the terrain from one frontier is extremely difficult while the other frontier is waterless and largely a desert. All European observers apree that the strategy to be followed by Ethiopia depends 011 whether the Emperor will be able by his personal force to restrain liis guerilla bands until concerted action can be achieved in the general employment of the Ethiopian rifleman. An attack en masse would be considered the greatest folly. Military opinion here .expects that Signor Mussolini will find it easy to send out bulletins of early victories, but it is felt that it would be better to wait and see how things balance out near Christmas. Nobody can predict whether the policy of restraining the frontier chieftains is {roiiifr to lie successful, but. it is obvious that if the 1 Emperor should be given sufficient tim ■ I to exert his personal force and tcac'i 1 his people some self-control, if is at a' I events less likelv that the Ethiopian will embark upon a. policy of niss? I resistance without leadership. N.A.JN.a.