ABYSSINIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 170, 19 June 1936, Page 10

ABYSSINIA.

Italy has not wholly conquered Abyssinia, if the report of the London Daily 7 Telegraph s correspondent is to be given credence. The Italians are not attempting seriously to penetrate beyond Addis Ababa with the exception of Gojjam Province. There are said to be 12,t)UU Abyssinians under arms, and they 7 are .likely to prove very troublesome in guerilla warfare. Ethiopia is a very extensive country, very mountainous and interspersed between the different ranges of mountains are rich and fertile valleys and high plateaux. The population is estimated at six millions and a half, and they 7 belong to various tribes conquered in relatively 7 recent times. Economically, Ethiopia is extremely backward, many of the tribes being- little better than recently 7 converted nomads, and only 7 lately 7 adopted methods of life, for the most part like patriarchs in the Scriptures, owning flocks and herds.

. The Abyssinians proper and some of the recently converted Gallas tribe are in a considerably higher stage of civilisation, a people representing about onetlnrd of the population. These, to some extent, practise agriculture and raise, even for export, an excellent quality of coffee, and they also export hides and some minerals, particularly gold. The gold is not mined but is obtained by washing from the rivers. Engineers who have visited Ethiopia are of opinion that the mountain chains are highly mineralised. Iron, sulphur and platinum are found, but none of these deposits are worked to any considerable extent.

Ethiopia is an exceedingly difficult country in which to provide adequate transport facilities. The country is intersected by masses of mountains, interspersed byvalley and plain. These plains themselves are of considerable elevation and to build railways and roads which would adequately open up the country would be an exceedingly expensive business. The area of the country is estimated at 400,000 square miles, or almost as big as France and Germany 7 put to"■ether. Transport facilities could only be afforded by foreigners having ample resources and in possession of valuable and substantial concessions which would make it worth their while to provide for facilities for working such concessions.. The only railway in Abyssinia is that from Addis Ababa, itself situated on a high plateau, and connecting that city with Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden, a distance of something under >SOO miles. The railway is French, owned and French controlled. Abyssinia’s neighbours are Eritrea on the Red Sea, French Somaliland and British Somaliland, both on the Gulf of Aden, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Kenya Colony 7, and Italian Somaliland on the Indian Ocean.