SASA BANEH OCCUPIED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 115, 11 November 1935, Page 9

SASA BANEH OCCUPIED

IMPORTANT ITALIAN GAIN

SPEARHEAD TOWARDS HARRAR

MOVEMENT IN NORTH-WEST

FIERCE ABYSSINIAN RESISTANCE

(United l'ress Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(Received November 11, 1 p.m.) LONDON, November 10. It is reported from Asmara that the Italians have occupied SasaBanch, 70 miles from Jijiga A message from Rome states that columns of mechanised units, following up the advance guards which occupied Sasa Banch, have consolidated positions between Sasa Baneh and Gorahai, namely, Warandab and Gabridi Hari, both in the Fafan Valley, it the head of which stands the important stronghold of Jijiga which defends the main road to Harrar, the second city of Abyssinia. It is officially announced that the withdrawal of the Metauro division from Libya is almost complete. COMMUNICATIONS IN THE NORTH. The Exchange Agency's special correspondent accompanying the Italians says that outposts have taken up a strong: line and installed machine-guns in the hills 20 miles south of Makalc to protect the engineers, who have already begun the construction of roads and the installation of telephones over 20 miles of rough country. When these works arc completed the Italians will have established 75 miles of communications since the beginning of the advance. Attention is now focused on the advance of General Maravigna's askaris on the extreme right. One column has occupied Adiggaga, a second column has entered the Adiabo region,. and a third is in the Takkaze Valley, moving south. All are reported to have met fierce, resistance. The British United Press correspondent at Makale states that political officers are beginning the civil reorganisation of the occupied territory and are proclaiming the abolition of slavery and taxation. SUPERHUMAN EFFORT. Guns are by superhuman effort being dragged over trails through altitudes ranging from 6000 to 9000 feet. It sometimes requires a hundred men at the tow ropes in addition to sixteen mules and a tractor to get a gun up a slope. Hundreds of pack animals have fallen or been rendered unfit. The British United Press correspondent at Harrar says that amid spreading gloom due to the realisation that the resistance of Abyssinian regulars can be shattered by modern weapons the Swedish Mission Hospital is treating casualties brought by motor lorries from Gorahai and Dor due to bullet wounds, gangrene, and the effects of gas. The wounded assert that four days' terrific fighting preceded the fall of Gorahai.