SUCCESS OF CAVALRY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 38, 24 January 1936, Page 5

SUCCESS OF CAVALRY.

Italians Claim Advance in Negelii. RAS DESTA TO FiGHT FROM THE MOUNTAINS. Press Association —OonyriEht. Rome, Jan. 22. A triumphant communique, after announcing the opening of an Italian offensive at Tembien, records a further advance by General Graziani’s troops, who, with the aid of the Genoa Dragoons and the Aosta Lancers, claims to have occupied Negelii, the principal town of the Galla Borani region, 60 miles west of Filtu, and to have seized quantities of arms and “thus delivering it from detestable Abyssinian domination the Borani country whose chief accepted Italian sovereignty in 1886. Local notables expressed satisfaction at the victory of the invaders, with whom they offered co-operation against the Emperor Haile Selassie.” Signoi Mussolini telegraphed to General Graziani a message vibrant with pride, but no indication is yet given as to whether this isolated dash by cavalry, supported by whippet tanks and armoured cars, precedes permanent military occupation.

The outstanding features of the situation are the reported diminution of General Graziani’s supplies and the further extension of his lines of communication, which now stretch 240 miles from Dolo. An Italian commentator expresses the opinion that the Abyssinians must have lost between 15,000 and 20,000 men in this latest operation, which would account for half Ras Desta’s forces. Ras Desta himself reports he has merely withdrawn with a view to launching harassing attacks from the mountains where tanks cannot reach him. Meanwhile Nassibu is enabled by Ras Desta’s threat to the Italian left flank to free his front advance against the invaders. By forced marches from Jigiga he has reached a point near Sasabaneh and hopes to engage the Italian right flank. The Rome Gazette publishes without comment a decree disbanding the infantry division constituted in November.