TOLL OF DISEASE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 256, 26 September 1935, Page 2

TOLL OF DISEASE.

ITALIAN TROOPS IN ERITREA. ABOUT 100 DEATHS DAILY. Disease is taking a heavy toll of Italian troops in Eritrea, according to Captain R. Lee King senior pilot at Port Sudan. Captain King arrived at Melbourne by the liner Mongolia recently. Port Sudan is only about 200 miles from Massawa, the entry port of Eritrea.

Captain King said that the Red Sea was a scene of intense activity. The small harbour of Massawa was congested by 60 Italian troopships and storeships, and the daily mortality among the troops from malaria and typhoid fever was about 100. The deaths were caused by lack of sufficient fresh water and by poor food. The Italian ships frequently visited Port Sudan on their return voyage, and Captain King was thus able to observe tho great activity of Italian ships in the Red Sea. Scores of vessels were visiting Massawa, he said, and the small port was packed with shipping. One vessel arrived at Massawa with 1300 tons of cargo to discharge. In normal circumstances this task would have taken only a few hours, but the steamer was not able to leave Massawa for 52 davs. Nearly every Italian steamer that returned from Eritrea had sick soldiers aboard.

Captain King said that the natives of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, although they were Mohammedans, were in sympathy with the Abyssinians. As for hundreds of miles the Sudan bordered Abyssinia, it was almost certain that Sudanese would cross into Abyssinia to join the irregular forces of Emperor Haile Selassie.