ITALY’S REPLY TO THE WORLD

Northern Advocate, 3 January 1936, Page 5

ITALY’S REPLY TO THE WORLD

“SHOULD WE USE EAU DE COLOGNE BOMBS?” (Received 1.30 p.m.) ROME, January 2. A semi-official statement regarding the bombing of the Swedish Red Cross unit says: . “The raid was a reprisal after the Abyssinians had beheaded a captive, Flight-Lieutenant Minnitti. Accompanying a bomb was this message: ‘You killed one of our captive airmen by cutting off his head, which was carried in triumph on the point of a spear to Harrar, against,the laws of humanity and the International Convention which lays it down that prisoners are sacred. You will get in return what you have deserved.’

“During the bombing one bomb fell on a tent in the Swedish Red Cross encampment, and it seems that two Swedes were wounded and a number of Abyssinians killed and wounded.” The Italian press, preparing to meet the foreign outcry, insists that the Swedes were members of a Swedish military mission.' f! Giornale d’ Italia” asks whether, in the face of the Abyssinian war methods, the world expects Italy to order her soldiers to put cork tips on their bayonets and to fill their bombs with eau de cologne and adds: “Stockholm should tell us whether it desires aviators, before proceeding with bombing operations, to lower a couple of men by parachute to ascertain whether any Swedish physician is in the neighbourhood.” The Abyssinians deny the de- * capitation of Italian airmen, and say the allegation is an odious lie, designed to cover an act of piracy. The Red Cross has been urged to replace the unit and to send out additional doctoi’s and units. Many arc volunteering.