ETHIOPIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23362, 30 November 1937, Page 10

ETHIOPIA

"LEAVE IT TO MONKEYS" RETURNING ITALIANS QUOTED After voyaging in steerage with Italian soldiers, workmen and £thiopian natives—on their way to Ethiopia and back—Dr Walter Morritt gave the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco last month his impressions of Italy's twentieth century pioneers and Mussolini's new empire. Referring to Ethiopia-bound Italians aboard ship, he said' "The spirit of those Italian pioneers was fine. One youth wrote on his sun helmet brim, : We have conquered an empire with our blood. We will develop it with our labour: And yet in the informality of steerage life many Italians were bitter against the Fascist regime and less afraid to express it than any I had ever encountered before. On the return trip there was again a shipload of workmen, soldiers, and natives. But what a difference! They were tired, worn and disillusioned. "Some were bitter, some were broken in health. Some had saved money from their 40 to 80 lire a day. Others said it cost all they earned to live. Some planned to return to Ethiopia, but there was no enthusiasm. The great majority would not return under any circumstances. ' Leave Ethiopia for the monkeys, they said. "Slill for every 400 returning to Italy there are 4000 waiting and anxious to go." "And," said Dr Morritt, "pioneering hardships were also terrible for those who suffered in Death Valley, but we enjoy the paradise they opened up. The same may prove true in Ethiopia. Visitors are not welcome yet, he said. He described difficulties he encountered in obtaining passage—finally, refused second-class accommodation on the ground none was available, ne took steerage. "When aboard," 'he stated. "I found the second class halt empty. , . , . " Vast sums are being spent in Ethiopia on surveys, roads, and ports. There are high plateaus where climatic and agricultural conditions are favourable for white men. Asmara and Addis Ababa are two such centres. The rainy season of four months is a great drawback, but good roads will reduce that drawback in time. ~,.,, "I was told in Ethiopia that Italy holds only the land actually occupied and is surrounded by hostile natives. Should a European war break out, Mussolini may have to withdraw his troops—and Britain has an emperor ready to put on the Ethiopian throne. That there is wealth can hardly be doubted. Everywhere in Italy I saw Ethiopian coffee on sale. Cotton, tobacco, fruit, and grain can be grown. Natives wear jewellery of Ethiopian gold. Uranium has been found. Skins, hides, and lumber are already being exported. But Italy this generation will get nothing out of Ethiopia, even if peace is maintained "There is excellent planning. Colonists will only be sent in when roads and homes can be prepared. At Dresent only men are being sent. J. he country' is not yet ready for women. Paving a tribute to Italian road builders, "to-day. as ever the greatest road builders in the world, Dr Morritt said 140,000 were building roads in Ethiopia. "The Italian emigrant has made the desert to bloom elsewhere. Hehasdugour ditches, built our roads, delved in our mines, and worked our vineyards and vegetable gardens. He will do more for his own new empire. Speaking of impressions gained in Italy this summer, he declared that " the word ' volunteer' there is a joke. Nobody uses it. When ships return to Italy bearing the dead and wounded from Spain they are received, not as volunteers in somebody else's civil war but as heroes, the glorious dead and thebrave wounded of all Italy. "The standard of living in Italy is falling, not rising. People are tired of towering taxes. They know they are spending money they have not got and probably never can pav back Despite this discontent. Mussolini still has the majority with him. 'We could lick Great Britain with one hand tied behind our back.' is no uncommon expression to-day in Italy."