LIVES ENDANGERED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 25 July 1935, Page 6

LIVES ENDANGERED

Italian Troops Suffer Through Shortage of Drinking Water TEMPERATURE OVER 100 DEO. CAMPAIGN IN ETHIOPIA A severe shortage of drinking water is endangering the lives of thousands of Italian soldiers who are totally unaccustomed to the torrid heat of the Red Sea. and Indian Ocean. This shortage is greatly impeding Italy s preparations far war against Ethiopia, cables Will Barber from Djibouti to the Chicago Tribune. The lack of suitable drinking water at the port of Massaua on the Red Sea and at Mogadishu, the heat-baked port of Italian Somaliland on the Indian Ocean, is so acute that Italy is obliged to buy water at Aden and Port Said at the northern and southern extremes of tjie Red Sea and at Port Sudan, the British military station which controls the Bied Sea by reason of its situation half-way up the coast. The precious water must he ierriod from Aden. Port Sudan, and Port Said to Massaua, where many thousands of Italians are encamped in tents or huts under the merciless sun. Water is also brought from Aden, across the Gulf of Aden, down the Indian Ocean to Mogadishu. This information, which comes from well-informed American and British sources, is supplemented by word brought in by Somali natives to Djibouti. who said that the use of drinking water by inhabitants of Massaua has been restricted to a- single hour a day. The imported water apparently :is intended only for soldiers and workers. , With the temperature well over KX> degreso at both Massaua. and Mogadishu, Italian soldiers are suffering tremendous privations. Down in this part of the world they cannot even got enough water to drink. In the meantime they are compelled by the Fascist dreams of conquest to toil at road-building, unloading ships and trains, shoving cannons through the sand, and drilling beneath the burning rays of the sun.

TERRIFIC HEAT. Premier Mussolini, of course, is comfortably ensconced in his luxurious Palazza. Venezia in Rome, half an hour’s drive from the cosy beach at Ostia. He only the blindingly white monument of King \ ictor Emmanuel opposite his windows and the dwindling Treasury down the read to disturb his dreams of being the 20th century’s Napoleon. . Two examples of the terrific heat indicate the hardships confronting the Italians. The Tribune correspondent took a number of photographs coming down the Red Sea. but he has none —the gelatine of the films melted to nothing because they were not kept on ice. . v The other example is a standing joke up and dow nthis coast —the tin nalm tree the first. Governor of branch Somaliland is supposed to have stuck up at the Government’s expense to replace the lack of greenery. The French arc supposed to have added a new coat of paint each year until after many years the tin palm tree took root.’ Tt is a poor joke, maybe, but. it might be true, as only a. tew trees and no grass at all grow here plus a little pink laurel with sickly leaves. But there is enough of that to make a single wreath for Mussolini’s brow. . Since the Italians refuse to permit newspaper men to see what, is going on in their colonics, reports of disease among the troops may be exaggerated. Nevertheless, the lack of water, it is said is taking a heavy toll. The natives, passing oil the word from tribe to tribe, declare that 10(7 Italians are dying daily. Europeans who know the natives’ habit of exaggeration say vou can knock off <0 per cent but that still leaves thirty victims a day. It is impossible to confirm either figure, but the number of thirtv deaths a day is put forward as a' fair estimate by a man who has no reason to injure the Italians.

EMPEROR’S WORK. While the Italians are facing tremendous risks- and heavy hardships, Emperor Halle Selassie of Ethiopia, secure in his mountain fastness, is doing his utmost to rally to his cause the inhabitants of his Somali provinces which are located next to the Italian British and French Somalilands. The Italians, of course, hope to win some of the Somalis to their side, but the African Emperor has launched a propaganda campaign to convince the tribesmen, who ordinarily are treated as stepchildren of the Ethiopians, that they should fight for the fatherland against the Italian invader. ■ . u So far no sentiment against ail whites in general has been started. Nevertheless, it is feared the Ethiopians in time of war might vent then hatred of Italians with little discrimination, especially in outlying districts where white people from time immemorial have been regarded as grasping intruders. While saying he himself has gone on hunting trips without escort, a French official advised me against driving towards the Ethiopian frontier. . The natives are well armed and their one desire when they get a gun. ho said, is to use it. Ho did not rofuso tjie writer permission to circulate at will in French Somaliland, but indicated that lie expected visitors to refrain from any act that might cause embarrassment to the French Government. „ . , As for driving out to the frontier of Italian Eritrea, there is nothing doing, it does not look far on the map and it is not vcallv far, .but there are no roads. There are only camel paths and man-sized mountains to cross. The procedure, if one is adventurous—-the ordinary communications are carried on exclusively by sea —would be to cross Djibouti Bay in an Arab dhow (sailboat), gather a caravan at Obok and start northward with the hope or arriving five- or six weeks later. A couple of British youths sot the record for the Djibouti to Assab (Eritrea) tri]i a few years ago. They went in. mountaineering trucks with a large supply of gasoline and oil. Ia some

parts the mountain gorges were so deep that the trucks had to be carried across by natives. The trip required two months. WARRIORS CAST ASIDE SHOES. ! Ethiopia’s tribal warriors cast aside| their shoes, ready to “defend the empire to the last man” against an anticipated Italian invasion, says an Associated Press message. European military advisers had tried to introduce' the footwear, but the troops reverted to bare feet while plunging with almost fanatical fervour into a new, voluntary military training programme. “The shoes have been abandoned because agility and mobility are impaired,” a high official said. “They were also an unnecessary expense. When the time comes, our soldiers will -fight with bullets, spears tfnd sabres —not with their feet!” The tribesmen submitted to Western ways in one respect, doing away with the cumbersome and conspicuous white togas which are the national dress, 1 adopting instead kliaki garb to camouflage their movements. The Emperor's call for voluntary enlistment placed no restrictions on age. Elderly men were preferred, being considered more accustomed to thehardships of a rugged outdoor life.