THE ITALIAN ARMY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 227, 23 August 1935, Page 16

THE ITALIAN ARMY

VOYAGE TO AFRICA. SUFFERINGS FROM HEAT. At the seaport of Massawa, in Eritrea, the chief landing station for the Italian expedition to conquer Ethiopia, tlie heat is intense, sometimes 122 degrees in the shade, says an Aden cablegram to the New York Times. Massawa is 7000 feet below the great plateau which stretches away southwest into Ethiopia. It is now a town of stevedores and newly-arrived troopk, with a few of the civilian population hanging on in the excessive damp heat. Specially picked men have been sent there from Italy to unload the cargo ships and transports, for only the strongest can stand the strain. ’The wharves are piled high with crates and packing cases. There would seem to be no room to unload another ship. Yet four or five large steamers wait in the harbour to discharge their material. Cranes creak all day long as tanks, aeroplanes, guns, mules, horses, and all kinds of packages are swung ashore. Once disembarked, everything is taken as quickly as possible on the single railroad track to Asmara, about 120 miles away, on the edge ot the plateau. The aerial railway from the foot of the plateau to the summit is constantly used. When the crowded troopships arrive, the young soldiers, many of whom have never left Italy before, find nobody to greet them. '1 he plain stretches away, unrelieved by vegetation, so dazzling in the sun as to strain unshielded eyes. In the distance can be seen tho foothills of the Eritrean plateau, whither these new arrivals will be despatched as soon as possible. Massawa is notoriously one of the hottest spots in the world. “It is like an inferno,” safd a soldier from Tuscany when he arrived there, ’’but I want to see that Garden of Eden, Ethiopia.” Those on the sick list when they arrive are taken immediately to a tent hospital near the port and shifted on to the higher ground as soon as they can be moved. 'The hospitals also are used as clearing stations for those who may have to he shipped home, having fallen ill in ithe colony. LITTLE WATER.

At Massawa there is very little water. The troops are allowed only two pints a day for drinking and washing. There are refreshment bars, but they are allowed to keep open only a short time each day because the young soldiers, in their thirst, would soon consume the supplies. Machinery is being set up as quickly as possible for the distillation of sea water, but it is difficult to keep pace cany when he arrived there, “but I Italians have been sending boats to buy water at Port Sudan, 300 miles away, where it must also be distilled. As soon as the young troops reach the plateau it is a different matter. The climate is much the same as Italy’s except that in the afternoons there is nearly always a torrential rain.

On the plateau the main activity at present is road building. Highways are being pushed out towards tho Ethiopian frontier as fast as men can build them—through ravines and over mountains. It is ns difficult ns any road building the Italian engineers' had to do in the Dolomites during the World War. Skilled workmen have been imported from Italy for these tasks, and, like the stevedores at Massawa, they earn good pay—J2s, 16s or even £T a day. Private soldiers earn about Is Bd. Dams are being built and pipelines laid to distribute drinking water. Huge camns have been erected, mostly of wood, to Shelter the new arrivals.

At Mogadiscio, Italian Somaliland, there is also a big camp, but most of the ships anchor at Massawa, where the landing facilities are better. Breezes blow oftoner at Mogadiscio, but nevertheless the place is like an oven, and there is the same shortage of water as at Massawa. The soldiers spend their days in shorts. The doctors have given orders that all soldiers* especially those in the plains, must eat large quantities of lemons and oranges, which help to prevent diseases of the tropical climate. • THE LARGEST ARMY. Despite all these handicaps, the largest army ever sent to Northern Africa —larger than Caesar’s and larger than Napoleon’s —is assembling in Italy’s East African colonies. It is well equipped and modern —the most scientific force that has ever envisaged an attack on independent Ethiopia, which for thousands of years has maintained itself from foreign domination. Italy may try to succeed where the Egyptian Pharaohs and the Roman generals failed. . . Italians admit that six divisions ot home troops are already distributed on the frontiers of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, where the number of cs-donial troops is unknown. All families of Italian nationals now have been evacuated from Ethiopia. A Cairo me.ssage to the same paper says that Italian troops numbering 81,500 passed through the Suez Canal on tlieir way to the East African colonies from March to the end of June, according to available statistics. Nearly 15,000 more have passed on the same route up to July 13. Twenty-seven transports are said, to be due to pass southward within the next month. An unconfirmed report states that two ships, one with 1700 and one with 1-100 troops invalided home, passed through the canal in recent weeks. Six men seriously ill of sunstroke were landed at Suez. Five of them died and were buried in the .Suez It is 'rumoured that the liner Victoria, pride, of. the Italian Eastern shipping service, is being taken off the India run for service, if necessary, as a hospital ship. . . . Inhabitants of Port Said line the waterfront as transports pass through, cheering and shouting to the soldiers who pack the vessels from stem to stem. The troops hound southward appear enthusiastic and in the highest spirits. Nobody, however, is allowed to board the troopships except certain necessary officials, and no troops are allowed ashore. Wahib Pasha, the Turkish hero ot Gallipoli, long exiled at Alexandria us an adversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has gone to .Addis Ababa to train Ethiopian troops. It is even suggested that he may act as commander-in-chief if hostilities begin.

animals and plants. Regular shipments are being made from “Port Said for Eritrea of locallypurchased mules, donkeys, fodder, and floating plant, including lighters, cranes and tugs. Surrounding countries including Palestine, Cyprus, and Syria, have been combed ior mules and donkeys. . . . .. British and other shipping lines are stated to be reluctant to accept shipments for Massawa or Mogadiscio, owin'' to the congestion of these ports, entailing long delays. . At Port Sudan the. only signs of activity are regular arrivals of Italian freighters, fully loaded and unable to take on the accumulations of general cargo waiting on the quay for transhipment to Massawa and Mogadiscio. Virtually all the Arab labour employed at Port Sudan 'has left for Massawa, where high wages are assured.

Attempts have been made to attract Egyptian labour southward to the Italian colonies and Ethiopia. Although such a movement has been officially prohibited, rumours persist that workmen have departed for those regions. Of the Italian colony of 50,000 in Egypt, many have already volunteered for military service, and hundreds are ready to join up when war breaks out. Although Sudan borders on Ethiopia, reaction to the present crisis has been negligible, says a special message from Khartoum. Here in the capital one would hardly notice that a threat of war hung over neighbouring States, except for increased exports of live stock and foodstuffs across the frontier to Eritrea. Annual leave arrangements in official circles of the Sudan have not been altered. Moreover, there is no influx of refugees except for a restricted movement of Arabs from north-west Eritrea into Sudan. Inhabitants of Sudan appear sympathetic towards Ethiopia in the present situation, but not to the extent that they would be if Ethiopia were predominantly Arab or Moslem. Their feelings are primarily due to the fact that Ethiopia is the sole remaining independent State in East Africa. As to military affairs in Sudan, there has been no increase in troops or material nor the slightest movement of units from their normal stations.