RACE WITH TIME

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 123, 24 April 1936, Page 10

RACE WITH TIME

TO SAVE ABYSSINIA, ROADS BEING - DESTROYED. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright'.') Received April 23, 12.55 p.m. ADDIS ABABA, April 22. The bursting of the Italian air bombs merges with detonations of dynamite with which the Abyssinians are hurling the road and abutments in tons of shattered shale down the hillside in order to block the enemy’s passage to the capital. The scene is the pass leading fro pi Shulameda Plain over the Tarm.arbur barrier to the plateau on which Addis Ababa stands 124 miles distant. Hundreds of workmen toil feverishly to divert streams to flood the roadway, which the resultant waterfalls are tearing to pieces, rendering the progress of the motorised units impossible. Warriors are digging pitfalls to entrap the armoured cars and tanks, and constructing gun emplacements and strong posts.,- < The first explosive charge was fired immediately after the passage of the Dutch Red Cross lorries, ..severing communication betwene Dessie and Addis Ababa. Rome reports that a message received from Abyssinia states that battle, is raging at Salla Dingai, 72 miles north-east of Addis Ababa. Impeded by the heavy rains necessitating the remaking of the roads, all of General Graziani’s columns are advancing from the Gianagobo battlefield in order to concentrate upon Sasa Ban eh on the heels of Ras Nasibu’s retreating Abvssinians, who are given no rest in the hope of completing their disorganisation.

ADVANCE HELD UP,

BY ABYSSINIAN LEADERS.

Received April 23, 1,15 p.m, LONDON, April 22. The Daily Telegraph’s Addis Ababa correspondent corroborates the holding up of the Italian advance by, the Eniperor and Crown Prince. The Crown Prince launched a frontal offensive north of Warrahail, while the Emperor, with the remnants of the Imperial Guard, strengthened by fresh levies, swooped from the mountains north-west of Dessie upon the Italian lines of communication. Both sides suffered heavily, but all the Italian coun-ter-attacks were repulsed. . Sir Sidney Barton (British Minister) declares that the civilian panic at Addis Ababa is entirely unjustified. He advises British, subjects to carry on their normal work. The Britons, Indians and Arabs are behaving splenThe Abvssinians in the south under Sahib Pasha are maintaining a stout resistance.

APPEAL TO WORLD.

EMPRESS AGAIN SPEAKS

IBIPASSIONEP WORDS,

(Received April 23, 1.20 p-ifi.) ADDIS ABABA, April 22. The Empress Blenen broadcast and Princess Tsaliai interpreted ail ppassioned appeal to tHe world Press to state Abyssinia’s case. Emphasising that there was still time for lovers of justice to end this most unjust war, the Empress Blenen declared: 1 will remain with my country and people in their critical need to the bitter end and fight against the appalling odds. The Empress concluded: . France, whom we had chosen as a friend, presents the enemy with the possibility of seizing Addis Ababa by her refusal to allow further sanctions, wherefore I appeal to her, as the emblem of liberty and equality, to Britain, as the defender of freedom and justice for all races, and to the whole world to abandon the delay in saving my poor country.