POSITION CLEARER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1935, Page 9

POSITION CLEARER

NORTHERN THEATRE OF WAR

(By 5.8. Q.)

The military position at least in the northern' theatre of war in Abyssinia is greatly clarified by "cable messages today. It is, first of all, quite definite that the Italians have not captured the whole of the northern gateway into Abyssinia. The three points which command this broad-entrance of some 46 miles are, from east to west: Adigrat, Adowa, and Aksum. The Italians, after a conflict which, from the description, must have been very severe and not without considerable loss to the invaders, have occupied the eastern section of the gateway with a line from Adigrat through Entiscie to Adowa, but they have still to take Aksum, the holy city of the Abyssinians. Until Aksum is in their possession it would be fool-' hardy for the Italians to advance any further south.

Aksum is some 12 miles west by south from Adowa and by the retention of this strategic point the Abyssinians. can threaten not only the existing Italian positions, but their lines of communications to the rear and across the frontier, which is here the Mareb River. The Abyssinian commander, Ras Seyoum, appears to have manoeuvred with some skill into a new position extending from Aksum in a line running south-east, south of Adowa to Makale, which commands the only feasible line of advance from the north on Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile, both sides are receiving and expecting reinforcements,, the number in the case of the Abyssinians being stated as 100,000 men. The Italians at Adowa are reported as being severely harassed by snipers who are being found a thorn in the side not easy to clear by machine-guns. The loss of four tanks with their crews is also reported.

The stubborn resistance of the Abyssinians in this region is based not only on military but also on patriotic and sentimental grounds., Aksum is the oldest city in Abyssinia, with monuments of a kingdom that once extended over Southern Arabia; whence the Abyssinians came. Some of these monuments are obelisks with inscriptions, some in Greek, relating to the Ptolemies, rulers of Egypt after Alexander the Great. ~This Axumite Kingdom, which extended to the Red Sea at Annesley Bay, was referred to in the ancient Latin account of a Voyage round the Red Sea. In the ancient church at Aksum the Ark of the Covenant is still supposed tp rest. There are also relics of the Portuguese connection with Abyssinia in the sixteenth century. Near Adowa are the remains of a Portuguese settlement at Fremona. The country round Aksum and Adowa and further east towards Adigrat is described as at one time exceedingly fertile and well cultivated and the climate is said to be beautiful. To the north is the range of hills the Italians had to cross, but the whole district is elevated, Aksum being 7226 feet above the sea level and Adowa only a little lower. At one time this favoured region was .cultivated, in terraces running high along the mountain sides. To the south the ranges run even higher. It seems that the difficulties of the Italian advance along this line are only beginning. *