TOWNS TAKEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1936, Page 7

TOWNS TAKEN.

ITALIAN ADVANCE.

Ficrce Fighting on Ogaden Front. BATTLE FOR SASA BANEH. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12 noon.) ROME, April 30. The Commander-in-Chief of Italian forces in East Africa, Marshal Badoglio, in reporting the capture of Sasa Baneh, on the Ogaden front, states that the Abyssinians were routed after stiff resistance to the Italian advance on and Jijiga.

Marshal Badoglio's communique stated: "General Graziani's troops carried at the bayonet point the whole of the Sasa Baneh lino. Italians advancing from Lake Tsana occupied Debra Tabor, Eas Kassa's former headquarters."

The Italians were held up by rain at Sasa Baneh, but resumed the attack at dawn on April 2!). General Agostini descended suddenly on the Abyssinian flank at Bullalch. resulting in the eventual capture of his objectives, including Nalibur, after 10 days' arduous lighting in which the Abyssinians resisted until the last.

Machine-guns mounted on lorries assisted, and 30 bombing 'planes heavily punished the retreating columns.

The Italians advancing towards Addis Ababa captured Debra Brehan. Later they captured the Important position of Mount Tarma, held by 350 Abyssinians under a Swede, Captain Tamil, because thousands of hastily-raised reinforcements from the capital did not arrive owing to lack of food. Some quarters attribute this to- treachery.

A statement by the Emperor that his people would fight to the bitter end was communicated by Haile Silassie to "The Times" correspondent in Addis Ababa answering a report in a London newspaper to the effect that he had acknowledged Abyssinia could no longer resist the enemy, who was employing every device of modern warfare.

The correspondent says: The Emperor has never acknowledged that his country's resistance is broken. On the contrary he has repeatedly stated that they would light on to the end. whatever might be, for a system of collective security, the destiny of which now was inextricably interwoven with their own.

Italian airmen attacked the hangars in the Addis Ababa aerodrome there with machine-guns.

KILLED IN KENYA. | Italian Deserters Escape from Internment. REFUSAL TO SURRENDER. (Received 10.30 a.m.) NAIROBI, April 30. An official statement reveals tlie fate of 31 Italian native deserters who entered Kenya, where they were interned.

They were woodcutting under escort when they escaped. Desperate men armed with machetes could not be permitted to remain at large, and accordingly patrols belonging to the King's African Rifles were sent out.

These surrounded the deserters, and a sergeant demanded their surrender in pursuance of his orders that he should not fire unless surrender was refused.

T'he fugitives scattered and the fire was opened, resulting in three being killed and several wounded. Six were drowned in attempting to cross a flooded river, and six more are missing, believed to .have been drowned. Sixteen were recaptured.

VEHEMENT CLERIC. BARBARITY IN ABYSSINIA. LONDON, April 30. "Never is it more difficult to restrain one's language tlian when one considers what is happening in Abyssinia," said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang. "The impotence of Christian Europe while professedly Christian people use every barbarity in tlio name of civilisation is lamentable."