DESERTION OF ASKARIS

Southland Times, Issue 22817, 17 February 1936, Page 7

DESERTION OF ASKARIS

ITALIAN ARMY LOSSES. RAS DESTA GAINS 650 TROOPS. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Dcssic, February 14. An official communique states that 650 Eritreans, with rifles, machine-guns and full equipment, have deserted from the Italian southern army to Ras Desta, the Abyssinian general, who expects additional deserters. The Addis Ababa correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that an Abyssinian chief who has arrived from the northern front declares that there is always a chance of askaris deserting from the Italians because they are the same race as the abyssinians, but if they do not desert they are ferocious fighters, clever in utilizing the ground, mobile and fearless, often resisting to the last man. The Italians on the contrary, he says are not mobile; they lack the dash of the askaris and fear hand-to-hand fighting. BADOGLIO” PESSIMISTIC MORALE OF TROOPS POOR. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS BAD. (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) London, February 15. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Herald says that French East African wireless stations claim to have picked up and decoded a private message from Marshal Badoglio to Signor Mussolini, which revealed that Marshal Badoglio was pessimistic about the military situation. The morale of the troops, he stated, was poor; they, also were poor physically, for which he blamed inadequate food supplies. KILLED BY A BOTTLE ABYSSINIAN WARRIOR’S DEATH. (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) Addis Ababa, Feb. 15. After discharging a dozen bombs without casualty an Italian aeroplane accidentally dropped a bottle of Chianti wine, which struck and killed one of Ras Seyoum’s warriors.