Italo-Abyssinian War

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21753, 8 April 1936, Page 10

Italo-Abyssinian War

In spite of Haile Selassie’s gallant declaration: “Ethiopia is not defeated,” reports of the last two or three weeks suggest that the Italian forces have dealt some heavy blows at Abyssinian .resistance. How powerful those blows are has yet to be judged by later results. In the last two or three months the Italo-Abys-sinian war has become second-class news, not so much because events in Ethiopia lacked interest, but because outside scrutiny of the conflict has been rigorously discouraged by the participants. The newspaper correspondents from different parts of the world have been hampered by censorship; they are kept behind the front when important actions are taking place, and as they are not allowed to send out first-hand accounts of the fighting, they have to rely upon whatever news is broadcast from the rival headquarters. In the circumstances no reasonably reliable accounts of the progress of the war are available. “The ancient Greeks,” said a writer in the “Manchester Guardian,” “had one curious custom when they went to “war. After each battle, no matter how de- “ cisive, both sides invariably set up a trophy “on the field to commemorate their victory. “ In this war, although the Italians and Abys- “ sinians do not set up trophies in stone, they “ tend to write verbal trophies in the form of “ official communiques 30 self-congratulatory “ and mutually inconsistent that it is difficult “ to tell at a given moment which side (if any) “ is losing.” It is now six months since the war began, and with the coming of the rainy season there must be abandonment of hostilities on a large scale. It is inevitable, therefore, that both sides should be attempting to give themselves a good share of hopeful publicity. The Italians report that they have been crashing their way to victory, breaking the Ethiopian army into disorganised pieces. Haile Selassie on the other hand is trying to harden up the application of sanctions by persuading the members of the League of Nations that poison gas and liquid fire are being used against helpless people, and that the Italians are making terrible use of their mechanical advantages. The outside world can be certain of these facts: Haile Selassie wants sympathy, and Mussolini wants victories. For months the Italians were not able to make spectacular and worthwhile progress. The enemy was too elusive. The Makale battle at the end of January was the only one up to that time which gave the Italians much to be exultant about. Italian headquarters claimed that the Ethiopian losses amounted to 8000, including 4000 prisoners, while the Italian losses were only 743. The Ethiopian version was that 8000 Italians had

been killed and wounded as against 1200 Ethiopian losses. Still another “official” version from Rome set the Ethiopian losses at 20,000 and the Italian at 400 dead and 500 wounded. The Italians, however, have made territorial gain, having occupied about 12,000 square miles of Abyssinia out of a total area of 350,000 square miles. So the war goes on, and the most recent message from Haile Selassie seems to show that he is under pressure. Whatever hope he has is concentrated on Geneva and the nations whom he thinks could end his troubles by unqualified imposition of sanctions that would cripple Italy by robbing her of vitally necessary supplies.