DEFEAT OF ETHIOPIANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19026, 28 May 1936, Page 5

DEFEAT OF ETHIOPIANS

REASONS DISCUSSED FAILURE OF LEADERS PERTH, May 27. Reasons for the Abyssinian defeat were outlined by Captain Arnold Wineholt, war correspondent for the Courier-Mail, Brisbane, who passed through Fremantle on the liner Otranto en route for Brisbane. Captain Wineholt said the Abyssinians failed to grasp the true significance of guerilla warfare and, but for the Emperor’s fleeing, the Italians would now have had to deal with a well-planned Abyssinian retreat to the west, which would have enabled them to hang out until the next rains. Haile Selassie, said Captain Wineholt, was overwrought mentally and physically, and could not be blamed unduly. He had no strong patriotic adviser, but only cowardly and interested persons. The Abyssinian lighting men were very brave and bore their wounds with gerat fortitude.

According to Captain Wineholt, the leadership among high ranking commanders was extraordinarily stupid. They could not learn the lesson of not trying to attack Italian positions. If they had grasped that, or had been ready to learn, the position in Abyssinia would have been very diftient.

The Abyssinian warriors, he added, were subjected to long drawn-out starvation and murderous operations by native brigands, who were stirred by Italian propaganda and money and were supplied with rifles and ammunition.

SANCTIONS CURB BITTER ITALIAN VIEW BAR TO CONCILIATION LONDON, May 27. The Morning Post’s Rome correspondent says that the British Government’s action in putting a warship at Haile Selassie’s disposal for his voyage from Haifa* to Gibraltar had made tlie worst possible impression in Italian official circles, which foresee a danger of a sanctionist rally promoted by the Emperor’s presence in England. In such an event, an atmosphere would be created in which all chances of conciliation between Italy and England would he hopelessly lost. Italy, lie says, is aware that many elements were combining to force forward the questions of sanctions in readiness for the League Council meeting on .Tune .1(5 and responsible Italians regret that an already complicated situation should thus further be imperilled.

It is officially insisted that Italy cannot even discuss the question of any settlement, nor will any Italian initiative he forthcoming, as long as sanctions remain.