EMPEROR PLANS A MODERN ETHIOPIA

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23323, 8 May 1941, Page 8

EMPEROR PLANS A MODERN ETHIOPIA

HAILE SELASSIE RETURNS

[By EDMUND STEVENS.] [Published by Arrangement with the "Christian Science Monitor.

April 5, Delayed. In a pleasant ravine on the long bank of a winding brook where broadtopped acacia trees offer concealment alike from the burning equatorial sun and the prying eyes of enemy aeroplanes, the Emperor of Ethiopia and Lion of the Tribe of Judah has pitched his camp. Near the royal tents are tents of his suite and confidants, nobles, generals, and pre lates who followed their monarch into exile after the crash of Italian mvasioniand who are following him back to take possession of ms country in the wake of British and Ethiopian arms. . , u.. Beyond this intimate circle are the nobles and chieftains keeping their distance from the Emperor in inverse proportion to their rank and importance.

Pledge Their Support On the outer rim are bivouacs of groups of native warriors and patriots often arrived from remote villages under their local headmen to make their submission and pledge their support to the “King of Kings, ’ for in Abyssinia, in military matters as m everything else, the feudal structure is rigidly preserved. The sum total of this collection is a vast picturesque open-air labyrinth policed by members of the Imperial

their owner recalled events*!

Five years to the day after he had been forced to leave hl| W by the Italians, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Abyssinia, refurf« triumph to Addis Ababa last Monday. Below is an account £ first interview the Emperor has given since he began his* jjj back to reclaim his throne. *

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cent past. ■ Though the Emperor speaM»9 French and adequate English-;||S® purposes of the interview hepwSM discoursing in his native idlonj?lSJß ric, while an American coUeffijgM| ed Abyssinian aide translatSlpß The Italian conquest said the Emperor, was the in a long series of dictator Powers against weaketJjSJe whose main product was calamitous situation in He recalled his own statem«to||jfi at Geneva after his counttywß quest warning other would be victims. Foresaw Italy in Wtr I He mentioned briefly his years of exile when he cluimkgg faith in his country’s resuttfcjipM From the outset of- the prSiafeß the Emperor stated, he hadbfeSfi that Italy would be involved, j !&2;« ingly, he submitted to thrljSJH Foreign Office a plan of asked for assistance when ; mS M Came. ■ When the American Under-ttiffe. of State Sumner Welles VitiMS land in the autumn of 1939. ® peror wrote him a personal IeSPS. ing him not to forget As soon as Italy the Emperor left on a homdfrWM via Egypt and Khartum. The Emperor disclosed thatwk delayed at ’ Khartum by preflrag* until the middle of January, -Ita* was flown to Omidlo, On .thfcijjh, sinian border. Prom there ifftwa year absence he re-entered AWiii territory in a commercial The journey was slow anilMMm through a roadless territory,' ’ - Often the Emperor got ouiiaJto and pushed together with the neiv After 10 days he reached the foot of-the escarpment Uidtei the interior of the By this time the Italians wm'bok.! ing for him and almost | aeroplanes tried to bbmb bib./ j| When Burye was captured the to. I peror’a camp moved there, he.w|KH I most of the 70-Odd miles. ‘‘-Bf- tfi I he and his patriot movement itrttt a | firm ground. . % “It is poetic arid divide juinte tt| : S Ethiopia, the first country to tobltill; to aggression, should be the nut Jit - erated and restored,!’ the me. “Others will follow .in to 3 course. 1 fe “Please convey to your AbWMn readers my deep affection-and tdfeinn tion for your country, which ility has manifested such deep the Ethiopian cause.” ■ 5 , Centralisation First He then, in replying to tar4s tions, briefly discussed the/ihtntl problem, the need for centyuUto and the replacement of thbFil# principle of local still prevails. In its place,--he«i must be put a unified He had studied edUcationaPftMH abroad, he said, and planned lish a widespread schoorritom Scholarships would bg estabra»,| send young folk to England:JMaiif rica to study. The flow ofCOnjnK goods into backward areas WMflffll Italians deliberately be encouraged and a rency system introduced graWMjfe* supersede the outmoded and Maria Theresa thalers which the chief medium of; exchangrat which the Italian lira never sucdjwl: in displacing.. ; , / / JjM, • Foreign capital would be feMjnP io help .develop the natural resources. . sSfe: Finally—and on this peror talked guardedly—EonAonu constitutional government 'IBP introduced. . On this hopeful note the -Wm& On a horse lent by his escorted by members of the bodyguard I picked my wayatojp my own camp through the dusk. . ' ' . --v-ffi: