AIR ATTACK REALITIES

Evening Post, Issue 50, 27 August 1935, Page 9

AIR ATTACK REALITIES

BEWILDERED NATIVES

EXPLANATIONS BY POLICE

(Received August 27, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, August 26.

Sir Percival Phillips, writing to the "Daily Telegraph" from Addis Ababa, says that the ignorant peasantry remains bewildered'and unable to grasp the grim realities of air attack. For a week now an Abyssinian aeroplane has been circling the city in order to accustom natives to aircraft. The police are Explaining to them exactly what it does, including the "dropping of weapons which make a big noise and destroy buildings."

, Sir Percival announces that a Swiss chef attached to the Court has taken a holiday in view of the action of the Emperor- and the Empress in abstaining from meat for a month, beginning today. :\

Priests continue intercessory 'Services, and foreign merchants are panicstricken by the Bank, of Ethiopia's refusal to sell foreign exchange, as a result of which the thaler has fallen 4s in the £. Many merchants are fleeing to the coast and others are closing their shops. ;

Hundreds of natives, apprehensive of an early air attack, are taking refuge in the hill villages, accompanied by their wives under umbrellas.

The Italian Legation has dispatched luggage to Djibouti, indicating its eventual withdrawal.

France is strengthening her railway defences. >