NO MERCY SHOWN

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1936, Page 7

NO MERCY SHOWN

DELIBERATE REVENGE

Italian " Clean-up" of Addis Ababa. . SUMMARY JUSTICE USED. United Press Association.—Copyright. ADDIS ABABA, May 18. The Italians have made 1500 arrests since occupying the city. The majority are alleged to have taken part in looting the city. Trials by military tribunal have been summary and evidence sketchy, and those condemned have been shot in batches of 40 or 50. A new capital crime is the possession of arms by Abyssinians. Following a decree ordering that arms should be surrendered within three days, of which the majority of the population was not aware, a search for arms began on May 9, and punishment for disobedience of the order was applied mercilessly. For instance, Herr Adel, an Austrian banker, returned home on the afternoon of May 9 to find that his servants had disappeared. He applied to the military governor, upon which he was told that they had been shot during the night. Some of them had been in his service for 20 years and, moreover, they defended the house during the looting. The Italians have also carried out deliberate revenge, including the murder by soldiers of the Abyssinian patriot and lawyer Ato Aderra, who opposed the Italians in a lawsuit in the early days of the war. NEW BANK RATE. REDUCTION IN ROME. (Received 1.30 p.m.) ROME, May 18. The Bank 'of Italy has reduced its discount rate from 5 per cent to 4j. i