ABYSSINIAN WAR

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4771, 12 November 1935, Page 7

ABYSSINIAN WAR

CAPACITY OF THE NATIVES. &REAT NATURAL FIGHTERS. The Abyssinian warrior does not at all know the danger he is running in a fight with a modern equipped European army, states General Eric Virgin, the Swedish political military counsellor of the Abyssinian Emperor, who has left Abyssinia owing to ill-health, in an interview with the correspondent of the Stockholm Tidingen in Addis Ababa, reprinted in The Times of October 2. He will attack without fear or trembling, even when he is to advance against tanks under the protection of fire from machine guns and artillery. His strength lies in his indomitable courage, the general says. If it were merely a matter of human qualifica' tions, this army would be able to take up the struggle with any European army whatsoever. It is arms and ammunition which settle the problem of war for us. It will not do to judge the Abyssinian Army from the European standpoint, but experience shows what unique capacity for cooperation these people have —often incomprehensible to us who are brought up on quite other systems and according to different traditions, and who represent quite a different mentality. Constitution of the Army. Three different categories constitute the army which in the last few months has been gathered together in Abyssinia. The old original army was formed like the present one, by chiefs and officials in different parts of the country. They are quite the same lines on which the feudal armies were formed in mediaeval Earope, when the vassals joined up with their men. Abyssinia is divided into 14 provinces, which correspond to the kingdoms or dukedoms or principalities of which the country at one time was formed, and each province is ruled by a governor. The latter was and still is in some provinces, entitled to collect certain taxes. By way of compensation for this service he had to keep an army for the Emperor, whose strength and armies as a matter of course were quite in proportion to the size and wealth of the provinces. In the same way the governor split up his province, so that his sub-governors,. or chiefs, in the villages in the different districts had to set up armed forces in compensation for the right to collect taxes. Some,,districts are still being governed on these lines, but this entails, as . history has shown a certain amount of risk. The troops had not come under the direct influence of the Government, and the present Emperor has, therefore, done away with this, system. Every new governor now appointed gets from the Emperor a certain army which is paid for by the State. He has this at his disposal to keep order within the province, and in case of war he has to place it at the service of the Emperor, but it is now a State army paid by the Emperor from the taxes which the Emperor, and. not the governor, imposes upon the people. All Soldiers Paid. But is is a mercenary army in so far as that the soldiers get a certain pay and are volunteers. Of late months there has been established a rule that every man without fixed or permament employment, must go to the front. Therefore there is no longer any problem of unemployment in Abyssinia. The Emperor can dispose of 2,000,000 men, all of them excellent soldiers, but it is impossible to ,make use of all the reserves because the supply of arms and ammunition has been cut off. Nevertheless these people possess a warrior tradition which, of course, has nothing in common with what we in Europe call modren warfare, and which may show some astonishing results. They have an instinct which in a surprising way turns them into good soldiers. This was seen at Ual Ual. Their co-operation there was on a par with the scientifically-calculated European war technique, wherever they may have got it from. In.fact, it is 'not so easy for us to grasp and understand this. It depends upon deeply-rooted inherited traditions. It is, in spite of everything, misleading to maintain that the Abyssinian soldiers lack military training. This is only correct if we look at the matter from a European point of view. The weak point is that this army will have to fight against aeroplanes, tanks, and artillery, and it is quite true that the Abyssinian Army in these respects is not only without arms, but also without any kind of training in a modern sense.