KING MENELIK DEAD.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1940, 24 December 1913, Page 5

KING MENELIK DEAD.

HIS INTERESTING CAREER. By Telesraph—Press Association—Copyright London, Decomber 22. It is officially announced from Addis Abeba that King Menelik is dead. Menelik 11, or Sahala. Mariem, Emperor of Abyssinia, was a soil of Haeli Melicoth, King of Slioa, and was born in 13 11. He claimed to a direct descendant of Solomon. dp till about 188G ho spsnt his years in various wars in endeavouring to establish his divine right to the sovereignty of Ethiopia, usurped_l>y Tliccdore and his heir, King John. Latterly he acknowledged tho supremacy i'o Johannes, and ill ISSSG he married his daughter Zeodita to tho Emperor's son, the li-as Area. Ho was thereupon declared heir to tho empire, and on his side acknowledged tho i.as Area as his successor. In 188!) Meneliic was elected king, and subsequently sent forces to co-operate with the British troops engaged against the Somali Mullah, "Mohammed Abdullah. Menelik granted in 189-1 a concession for tho building of a railway to his capital from the French port of Jibuti, but alarmed by a claim mado by France in 1902 to the control of tho lino in Abyssinian territory, ho stopped for four years the extension of the railway beyond Dire Dawa. 'When in 1906 France, Great Britain, and Italy caiuo to an agreement on tho subject, Menelik officially reiterated his full sovereign rights over the whole of his empire. In May, 1909, tho' Emperor's grandson, Lij Ynsii, then a lad of thirteen, was married to liomunio, granddaughter of the Negus Johannes (King John). Two days later Yasu was publicly proclaimed at Adis Abeba as Menelik's successor. At that time the Emperor was seriously ill, and as his ill-health continued, a council of regency—from which tho Emperor was deluded —as formed in March, 1910.