ITALY AND ABYSSINIA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22319, 5 February 1938, Page 20

ITALY AND ABYSSINIA

TO THE EDITOR OP TH* PRESS. Sir There is one section of “Catholic Truth’s” letter on the above subject upon which I should be glad of your permission to comment. He quotes: “ ‘ltalian financiers have erected a brewery in Addis Ababa, the first of its kind in Abyssinia. Ths Church and Benito, the Blessed, he says, ‘seem to know that beer and Bibles are good for Abyssinia.’ ” Might I suggest to “Catholic Truth and others that until we Britishers remove the stain from our own national escutcheon, we are not in a position further to besmirch that of Italy. While as a Protestant I cannot condone the further gash inflicted in the side of the “body of Christ’ by the insistence of the Church of Rome on the expulsion of all Protestant missionaries from Abyssinia, I am forced

to withhold judgment upon the Italians for the erection of a brewery in a teetotal country by reason of the fact that, since Britain was given the mandate of Palestine, beer-selling licences have increased from 15 to more than 1000. and that breweries, too have been inflicted upon these people—not for their asking, but that British financiers saw an opening to make more money. Competent observers are ot the opinion that the beer question is not the least of the factors making for the present unrest in Palestine It seems to me that we will need to borrow quite a few of Mr Semple s motor scoops to dig the dirt out ol our own eyes before we will see clearly to take the mote out of our hrnther’s eve—YourS, etc., brothers eje. FRED SANDERS ON. Granity, February 2, 1938.