FINAL APPEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 7

FINAL APPEAL.

Emperor Exhorts Subjects to Fight to the Last. BEAT OF WAR DRUMS. ADDIS ABABA, May 3. While an Italian aeroplane circled overhead war drums summoned the people of Addis Ababa to the Emperor's palace on the top of a hill, prior to his departure, to hear his appeal for a last effort to defend the capital. "I ask every man who is neither wounded nor sick, to take arms and enough food for five days and to proceed north to attack the Italians," said Haile Silassie. The crowd surged forward shouting: "We will go." Tlio Commander-in-Chief of this hastily-levied army will be Ras Getatachu. It will march out of Addis Ababa to meet the Italians. The Emperor was still wearing his field-marshal's uniform, but his face was drawn and haggard, and his beard streaked with grey. Both his hands were bandaged for burns inflicted, it is alleged, by the enemy's mustard gas.

"Abyssinia is not beaten and is not suing for peace," Haile Silassie told the correspondents of foreign newspapers. "If I am compelled to evacuate Addis Ababa it will have no significance. I shall establish a new seat of government and new general headquarters to the west of the capital. The war is not over yet by a long way. My army is still capable of fighting and I am more than ever determined to light to the last man."