NO EASY CONQUEST

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 232, 17 September 1935, Page 8

NO EASY CONQUEST

ABYSSINIAN CONDITIONS Italy Will Be Handicapped WATER THE MAIN DIFFICULTY Neither Abyssinia nor the Abyssinian* will lie conquered easily. No war could begin before October, and military activity by Europeans would be compelled to cease within six months, it tv probable that the most important factor in the situation is water. Water M the main cause of the difficulty—namely. Lake Tsana. This is the opinion of Sir John Harris. the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, who knows Abyssinia well. He adds Over-abundance of water (26 inches in a month* makes Abyssinia impassable to anything but men, camels, donkeys and mules; then, when the rams are over, lack of water, which means that ev#rv cup of water must be cairied by the army wherever it goes, makes travel again almost impossible. Thus water is the first great ally of the Abyssinians. SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. 1 lie next asset the Abyssinians possess, Sir John adds, is the spirit of the people, which amounts almost to a religion. Every Abyssinian is a warrior. At the head of the Abyssinian hosts the Emperor has always marched as Commander-in-Chief, under the proud title ot “Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” The Emperor will be surrounded by his kings, for he is literally a King oi Kings. The power ot some of these great kings may be gathered from the fact that Ras Kassa has already come to the aid of his Emperor with a powerful army which includes 70,003 cavalry. It is understood that the Emperor has now appointed him as Field-Marshal in charge of the Army of the North, which has its headquarters round Axum and Lake Tsana, and thus i« across the path of the Italian invaders from Eritrea to Addis Ababa. The third asset which the Emperor of Ethiopia possesses is the character of his country. None can feel anything hut pity for the Italian boys who will have to cross the sandy wastes of Abyssinia. but worse awaits them in the mountains and defiles of the country. Upon the top of every mountain, hidden in every cave and behind every boulder, will lurk death-traps of every kind, manned by fleet-footed warriors, possessing the finest mountaineering animals in the world, capable of acting swiftly upon the lines of communication upon which everything depends. Terrible indeed from every point of view would be this war of conquest. NEVER SUFFERED DEFEAT. The Abyssinian army at the moment is believed to number 103,000 under the Emperor himself. These are partly European-trained, and can be quickly increased in number. For example, the troops which were called up at very short notice at the time of the visit of the Duke of Abruzzi in 1927 numbered 100,000.

By tradition Abyssinians have never suffered defeat. Every soldier remembers how, in the 16th century the country was overrun by hosts ot Mohammedans, and then how the Emperor himself was defeated and hunted like a wild beast in the mountains; finally, how this Emperor—Lebna Dengall—ewept down from the mountains, rallied the Abyssinians and drove the Mohammedans helter-skelter out of Abyssinian territoty and thereby established Christianity throughout the land.

Then once again is told the epic story of 1696. It is repeated in every home in Abyssinia how in the Battle of Adowa the Emperor Menehk, the “Conquering Lion” of the day, led his army against the Italians, which resulted in a great victory, for only 4000 Italians survived the battle with whole skins. Nobody who knows anything of Abyssinia, concludes Sir John Harris, would propbesv what would be the results of a conflict beyond saying that if it takes place it will be one of the most terrible ware in history. The Abyssinians have always fought with great bravery, but unfortunately the most terrible cruelties have not only been suffered but inflicted.