BEATEN ARMIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22390, 9 April 1936, Page 11

BEATEN ARMIES

PREY OF BRIGANDS ) I FUGITIVES' PITIFUL FATE v POWERLESS TO RESIST By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, April 7 A message from Rome states that the Emperor oi: Ethiopia, Haili Selassie, is believed to be retreating southward riding on a mule. The Crown Prince is said to be going north with 2000 men in order to protect, his father from armed bands of brigands who are -slaying and robbing the defeated troops, whose rout was partly the result of these onslaughts and partly owing to Italian aerial bombing and machine-gunning. The locality is strewn with corpses. According to a report from Makale, an observer in an Italian mail aeroplane describes tho fatalism of the beaten Abyssinians who, with few exceptions, aire too cisheartened to take cover in roadside lushes and are offering easy tsirgets as. they stagger down the middle of the voad. The observer sacs he saw a bomb create ghastly contusion in the midst of a group of Abyssinians and then machine-guns completed the work of destruction,, However, the fugitives are powerless to resist and do not attempt to defend themselves or to help the wounded. On the whole of the northern front the Italians are advancing southward from Sakota and Qluoram. An official statement issued in Rome reports thai the casualties are: —White troops in Abyssinia from June 1, 1935, to March 31, 1936, 907 killed in action, 77 died of wounds, 49 missing and 589 died of illness. The total casualties among the Askaris since the campaign began are 822 on the northern and ! 97 on the southern front. A telegram from Addis Ababa states that every able-bodied Abyssinian capable of performing military service has been summoned to the colours.