OUT IN THE OPEN.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13181, 13 February 1936, Page 5

OUT IN THE OPEN.

ITALIAN PRESS OUTCRIES. SOME MIXED METAPHORS. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. ROME, February 12. The Italian Press now openly associates the Italian death roll in Abyssinia with British ammunition. The journal Tevere says: “Every name in the list of our fallen was presupposed in an English cartridge Our grief is British profit. The English Colonel Holt can draw up his first balance-sheet of British affairs in Abyssinia—munition supplied and gold pocketed. But the gold is stained with the blood of our brave youth. The Times points out that as British Military Attache at Addis Ababa it is Colonel Holt’s dutv to visit the Abyssinian. army headquarters at Dessie which the French and American Military Attaches similarly visited.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. February 11. There is no truth whatever in the story of British leadership in Abyssinia. Lieutenant-Colonel R. B. Holt is senior British Military Attache in Addis Ababa. Like" the United States and the French Military Attaches, he has in pursuit of his duties proceede*d to Dessie in order to keep in touch with the progress of events. There is not the slightest ground for the suggestion that he is advising the Emperor.

CURAT’S REPORTED CAPTURE. ADDIS ABABA. February 11. it is announced that despite the silence of Rome communiques Abyssiuians under Ras Nasibu and Wehib Pasha after heavy fighting expelled the Italians from Curat, fifty miles south-east of Sasabaneh, as the result of a surprise attack. There were severe losses on both sides. The Addis Ababa coirespondent of the Times confirms the capture of Curat, which commands important water supplies, by two hundred Abvssillians after a hand-to-hand struggle in barbed wire. REINFORCED ITALIAN FLEET. ATHENS, February 11. A thousand Italian airmen have arrived at Leros Island in order to reinforce the Italian fleet in the Aegean Sea. Rhodes is encircled by wire barriers and all roads are fortified. The air force is co-operating with naval and submarine manoeuvres and mines have been placed in local waters.