CAPTURE OF BESSIE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21761, 18 April 1936, Page 15

CAPTURE OF BESSIE

HONOUR TO NATIVE TROOPS RETREAT OF NORTHERN ARMIES ITALIANS ASSISTED BY DISAFFECTED TRIBES (HOTTED PEISS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received April 17, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 16. The Rome correspondent of “The Times” says that in spite of contrary reports an official communique reveals that the honour of occupying Dessie fell to native troops under General Pirzio Birolli. Twenty thousand native troops now occupy the town and the neighbourhood. The inhabitants are slowly returning to Dessie. The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” says news from the Sudan confirms the retreat of the Abyssinian northern armies, who cannot rally unless the rains terminate the Italian aerial activity. Signor Gasperini, former Governor of Eritrea, who took up residence there after his retirement, established an excellent intelligence service among the non-Amhanc tribes, whose chiefs spread Italian propaganda. The disaffection of these tribes not only assisted in the Abyssinian defeat at Amba Alagi, but compelled Haile Selassie to give battle at Lake Ashangi on ground most favourable to the Italian artillery and aircraft. Moreover, the Italians countered the Abyssinian tactics of emerging from the bush to attack the Italian flanks by drenching the bush with gas. The Dessie correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says that all along the line of the Abyssinian retreat from Quoram to Dessie were found hundreds of dead warriors with spear wounds and scimitar wounds, conclusively proving that they had fallen in hand to hand encounters with non-Amharic tribesmen, who wreaked vengeance for past oppressions.

ABYSSINIANS CLAIM A SUCCESS

ROUT OF AN ITALIAN COLUMN (Received April 17, 8.10 p.m.) ADDIS ABABA, April 16. The Abyssinians claim that in a surprise attack they routed an Italian mechanised column advancing from Negelli, killing 320 Italians and 19 Askaris, and capturing six lorries loaded with munitions and 12 machine-guns. The Abyssinian losses were 17 dead. The Emperor decorated the victorious officers. It is still asserted that the Abyssinian northern armies form an appreciable menace to the Italian rearguard, which might be cut off from the spearhead of the Italian advance.