HIDE-AND-SEEK WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1935, Page 7

HIDE-AND-SEEK WAR.

Difficulty in Locating Native Forces. STRENGTH UNKNOWN. LONDON, October 21. Dispatches from Asmara, the Italian headquarters in Eritrea, state that the reason why it is becoming a hide-and-seek war is the difficulty of the Italians in ascertaining the whereabouts of the Abyssinian troops in country which so facilitates their concealment. This is accentuated by the meagre reports from Italian airmen, although numberless daily reconnaissances are conducted. Even where groups of Abyssinians are reported their strength is not known. Consequently their estimates must be guardedly accepted. Thei invaders, owing to the broken terrain, may "methodically" advance along the so-called Via Inglese —namely, the route followed by Lord Napier's Magdala expedition in 18G8 —but this plan seems to overlook the strong and increasing Abyssinian concentration around Makale, which lies to the south of the Italian base and between it and Magdala. Major-General A. C. Temperley, British military representative at the League of Nations, writing in the "Telegraph," recalls the Italian General Staff's reported warning to Signor Mussolini prior to the outbreak of hostilities that it might take three years to reach Addis Ababa and another three years to subjugate Abyssinia. He points out that the accompaniments to positional warfare, on which the Italians are priding themselves, are not so necessary as an immediate advance.

"The rains will return in May," says the writer. "How far will the Italians get at their present .leisurely rate?"