FINAL APPEAL
DEFENCE^ OF CAPITAL
BEFORE SELASSIE LEFT
ADDIS ABABA, May 2. While an Italian aeroplane circled overhead, war-drums summoned the people of Addis Ababa to the Emperor's palace on the hill-top, to hear his appeal for a last effort to defend the capital.
"I ask every man who is neither wounded nor sick to take arms and enough food for five days and proceed north and attack the Italians," he shouted. The crowd surged forward, shouting, "We will go." The com-
mander-in-chicf of this hastily-levied army is Ras Getatchu. It was to march out of Addis Ababa today to meet the Italians.
The Emperor was still wearing a field-marshal's uniform, but his face was drawn and haggard, his beard streaked with grey, and both hands bandaged owing, it is alleged, to poison gas burns.
"Abyssinia is not beaten and is not suing for peace," Haile Selassie told foreign newspaper correspondents. "If I am compelled to evacuate Addis Ababa it will have no significance. I shall establish a new seat of Government and new general headquarters to the west of the capital. The war is not over yet by a long way. My army is still capable of fighting, and I am more than ever determined to fight to the last man."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19360504.2.77.3
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 9
Word Count
212FINAL APPEAL Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1936, Page 9
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