STILL A PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22742, 30 November 1935, Page 18

STILL A PROBLEM

RICHES OF ABYSSINIA ITALIAN CONFIDENCE Although they are surprised by the great interest shown in Abyssinian oil by American interests, old sages about Addis Ababa still contend that Abyssinia as a land of plenty is a will-o’-the-wisp and that Mussolini is a Pied Piper leading the Italian people on an expensive and bloody excursion towards a problematical goal (writes a special correspondent in Addis Ababa to the Manchester Gurdian). Many people in the neighbourhood of the capital have sunk fortunes in one sort of scheme or another in Abyssinia, and their experience has rendered them both cautious and sceptical. The only thing admitted _by them in regard to Abyssinia is that it is a potential mine of agricultural produce, a fact of minor interest in these days of low prices and one of particularly email significance to a people such as the Italians, who have already taken to the cities when they have landed on foreign soil. If Mussolini can convince Italian peasants to migrate to the heart of Africa to renew their relationship with the land it is admitted that Abyssinia might, indeed, prove to be a worth-while colony. If, on the other hand, Italians expect to find a land in which gold and platinum grow on the eucalyptus trees they are doomed to be bitterly disappointed.

ABYSSINIA’S EXPORTS. To date Abyssinia has proved positively that she possesses good coffee land and is perfectly adapted for the cultivation of grain crops and fruit. _ Her annual exports, which are a good indication of present development, consist of an average of 25,000 tons of coffee, 5000 tons of cowhides. 500 tons sheepskins, 750 tons goatskins, 400 tons beeswax, and 25,000 ounces of civet perfume base. The only other information of importance in this connection is that _it has an estimated annual production of about £2OOO worth of platinum and about £IOO,OOO worth of gold—otherwise there is nothing. Total exports amount to 10,000,000 thalers a year and imports to about 13,000,000. Two good freight ships could carry Abyssinia’s annual exports. Several facts appear to be of primary importance in estimating Abyssinia’s possibilities as a protectorate or colony of a European Power. It is granted that many of the difficulties which have beset ths country up to the present and many of the hindrances to a fully-developed commerce lie in the > lack of transport facilities and the actions of local chieftains in demanding taxes which often fall into the class of "protection.” The cost of shipping agricultural produce from a point lying 200 miles from the railway to the nearest station is generally equivalent to its full market value. The tolls paid to local chieftains, the export tax amounting to 20. per cent, in kind and 8 per cent, of the value—fixed according to an arbitrary exchange rate —and the “•kerut,” or internal taxes, all tend to stifle any initiative which may have survived the heavy cost of moving goods to market. The institution of a rigid tax regime, operated without interference by petty local tribesmen, would certainly assist commerce, if not put it on a paying basis. Roads such as would be needed to keep goods moving during both the dry and the rainy seasons would be highly expensive, but might prove economical in the long run. FOREIGN FAILURES.

Both of these reforms may be provided in time by the Emperor, if he is given the opportunity. A foreign Power bent on getting quick returns from a costly invasion would be bound to attempt both immediately. Abyssinians firmly believe that history repeats itself, and they point to sad experience to show that Western initiative cannot succeed in paying dividends in their country. It appears to be a fact that few foreign concessions ) have made real successes here. “Prasse, the Italian platinum-mining concession, is the only one to have made money consist ently, and because of the fall in world prices it has lately shown deficits for two years running. . The Belgian “ Societe des Plantatmns d’Abyssinie,” which has been operating coffee plantations _ here since 1930, has made money occasionally, but is now reported to be running at a loss because of the low pricee obtainable on the world market. ~ ~ , One of the many corporations which have been set up to exploit Abyssinia e « untold wealth ” went into business some 15 -rears ago with the intention of developing commerce throughout the country. and ceased operations in 1928 after having reputedly lost £20,000 of an ongininal capital of £50,000. Dozens of stones are told of other companies which have tried their fortune here, and of the unhappy ends which have inevitably befallen ■ th The Franco-Ethiopian Railway, which making money easily aa a result of the war scare, is one of the few businesses to have done really well in the country, and its success is largely because it is a monopoly and operates in a country with few motor roads. Until such time as the mineral resources of the country have been investigated and found to be important Abyssinia appears destined to be primarily an agricultural country offering most to those who are willing to rest content with a modest and hard-earned living. Even then the nature of its population, the extreme distances which separate it from the Western world, and the innate resentment of its manv local chieftains of anything that savours'of modernity will prdobably help to withstand progress. Whatever its undiscovered treasures, Abyssinia to-day is still a problem worthy of much more investigation before being bought at such a price of human esteem and human lives as Italy’s ruler appears ready to pay for it.