ATTITUDE OF EMPEROR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22251, 28 October 1935, Page 9

ATTITUDE OF EMPEROR

NO CESSIONS IN TIGRE AREA

DETERMINED STAND EXPECTED ! TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY DEMANDED i Bt Telegraph—Presi Asuociation—Copyright Times Cable LONDON, Oct. 25 The Addis Ababa correspondent of the Times says no basis presents itself for peace negotiations. The Emperor Haili Selassie still refuses to make any official statement because he has not been informed yet of the peace proposals, the nature of which, however, he suspects, and the onus of refusal of I which he prefers to leave on Italy. Nevertheless, the Emperor will not yield peacefully an inch of Tigrean soil. Therefore, proposals that Italy should keep her present gains and, still more, any proposals involving the whole of Tigre must be excluded. The Emperor regards such a procedure as a breach of the Covenant. Haili Selassie is fully aware that the absence of mass tactics in connection with the occupation of Adowa, also the long period necessary to bring up his troops to position on the northern front, give the impression that he is ready for a truce, but he scorns to consider this, except on the basis of territorial integrity and independence. If the Emperor ceded a portion of Tigre, which, he says, : would be tantamount to England relinquishing Yorkshire, besides betraying the only leader who so far has been able to fight for his native land, it would not only end the dynasty but Abyssinia as a controllable entity. Another message from Addis Ababa states that the Emperor said he was willing to cede Ogaden to the Italians in return for a seaport, but he would never on any condition yield an inch of the country in the north. An official stated that if the Italians attempted to hold what they had already gained Abyssinia would attack the minute her armies were ready. He added that it was said previously to be inconceivable that Signor Mussolini would permit 250,000

soldiers to return to Italy without firing a shot, so it was impossible to expect the Abyssinian warriors meekly to march home without attempting to expel the invaders. The Times correspondent says the conviction is growing that the Abyssinians will make their first determined stand before Makale and that the conflict will not be a mass battle but a widespread delaying action over an immense front.