PATRON SAINTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 9

PATRON SAINTS

SELASSIE'S FAITH

"MORE THAN A MATCH FOR

MUSSOLINI"

(Received November 7, 1 p.m.)

LONDON, November 6.

The "Daily Telegraph" correspondent at Addis Ababa states that the Emperor Haile Selassie will take Father Gabreab with him to Dessie as his personal confessor, also two famous Arks of the Covenant, one of St. George, reputed to be the organiser of the victory at Adowa in 1896, and the other of St. Gabriel, who is supposed to have given Selassie the victory against Ras Michael, father of the rebel .Li] Eyassu, in 1916. Abyssinian warriors assert that they saw Si. George riding a white horse at Adowa and leading Menelik's hosts to conquest, thus repeating the Roman legend of Castor and Pollux at the battle of Lake Regillus. They declare that St. George and St. Gabriel are more than a match for Signor Mussolini.

"The Times'* Rome correspondent states that General Biroli's native troops encountered in the Aslo valley, due north of Makale, a remarkable collection of Copt churches, some of architectural merit, excavated in the hard rock. Resident priests received the troops with full liturgical ceremony, carrying crosses and manycoloured umbrellas, but somewhat detracted from the dignity of the occasion by wearing "women's garments propitiatorily given to them by the troops. The sight of a hundred venerable black-bearded hermits draped with gaudy petticoats and gay bodices solemnly chanting. psalms sent the soldiers into shrieks of laughter.