ABYSSINIAN REFUGEES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22864, 20 October 1937, Page 9

ABYSSINIAN REFUGEES

8000 NOW IN KENYA PERILOUS TREK TO FREEDOM The Kenya Government has decided to concentrate all Abyssinian refugees, now numbering 8000, in a special camp at Isilolo, 150 miles south of the Abyssinian border. The decision follows one of the most remarkable occurences in the history of Kenya. The refugees arrived in large bodies at remote spots where there was no water, no grazing and no administrative post, and they wero discovered by native police patrols. They were starving and thirsty and many wero unable to walk. Large numbers wero suffering from smallpox and dysentery. A doctor and a police inspector hurried to the spot and made a temporary camp. Royal Air Force machines ilew supplies of lymph to the nearest landing ground and more than 100 smallpox cases were accommodated in a cave on the shores of Lake Rudolph. For three months they had fought their way to freedom from the Harar district, evading Italian soldiers, fighting armed border bandits and quarrelling with uiii'riendlv tribes.

A trail of trouble, including stock thefts and murders, marked tho trek to Kenya. The largest party, numbering 2000, was in charge of an Abyssinian named Lej Yasti. The refugees are of all classes —wellbred Abyssinian women and also slaves and peasants. A largo number of soldiers, both Abyssinian and Italian deserters, accompanying the refugees were armed with machine-guns, modern rifles and one anti-aircraft gun, all ol which they surrendered.

Tho task of providing medical attention and of feeding, nursing and transporting the refugees through the inhospitable game-infested country has been surrounded with the greatest difficulties.