SELASSIE'S FLIGHT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 5

SELASSIE'S FLIGHT

SYMPATHY IN ENGLAND. THE TRIUMPH OF ITALY. CIVILISED WARFARE. London, May 13. Sympathy is the universal feeling here for Haile Selassie, whose flight from Addis Ababa to Jerusalem was one of the main items of news last week. The British Press, with scarcely an exception, has in some measure attempted to reflect the feelings of an Emperor whose dominion was wrested from him by an aggressor, serving the cause of humanitarian progress to the accompaniment of showers of mustard gas. The frustration of Haile Selassie’s difficult task of ruling a backward country and impelling it gradually forward, with his genuine love of progress, his disappointment and humiliation, have been described in a manner that has made him a romantic figure. There is little, if any, admiration for Mussolini’s bombastic triumph. His comparison of modern Italy’s achievement with those of modern Rome have been received with none too well concealed scorn. There is a general failure to see how victory can register more glory than shame in the “triumph.” To call it Roman, it is declared, is to malign the shades of the great dead —Ca'esar and Pompey, Augustus and Hadrian. The

superiority of Mussolini’s forces and the manner in which the campaign has been conducted, have been compared, none too kindly, wtih a fantastic movie film, more extensive than the most grandiose imagination of Hollywood ever conceived. Character Sketch. But for Haile Selassie, regarded as the man who set out to lead his people to civilisation by the paths of peace and who found in that civilisation nothing but the ‘ shattering of his hopes, the slaughter of his people, and the extinction of his Empire, there has been every sympathy. The depths of his character, it is said, are hard to probe, for all his life he has worn the armour of an impenetrable reserve. “His salient cnaracteristic is dignity, a common hall-mark of Ethiopian aristocracy, but one often reinforced by the impressive physique to which in all primitive countries so much importance is attached,” wrote Major Lawrence Athill, in the Sunday Times. “Haile Selassie lacks that reinforcement, for he is a little, almost puny man. Threatened in youth with lung trouble, which at his election to the Regency held out for him small prospect of long life, he has more recently suffered from blood-pressure, a complaint which does not make for serenity of mind or manner. Yet in no crisis of his life has he failed to preserve a calm dignity which owes nothing to externals.

With his dignity and reserve there goes a high degree of secretiveness. It is a common trait among the Abyssinians, who, on matters of weight, communicate among themselves by

innuendo and things left unsaid rather than by outspoken statement; and, by this reason, they are often credited by Europeans with reticence in Jxcess of their intention. But, although Haile Selassie has given a friendship which is probably quite sincere to a small number of foreigners it is doubtful if he ever fully discloses his mind to any of them, and when, as he does upon occasion, he seems to speak with animation and frankness, both are probably nicely calculated for a set purpose. Patient, Tired Eyes. “He seems to be religious, and is widely versed in the doetrine of the Ethiopian Church. It has been said that his religion is a cloak worn for the benefit of his priest-ridden subjects, and he is certainly too progressive to approve of all the tendencies of a reactionary priestcraft. But his life is strictly ruled by the precepts of his Church, and behind his physical frailty there is a spiritual constancy such as is rarely found without the basis of a deeprooted faith. “He is saved from physical insignificance by his eyes. They are, I think, the most patient, most tired eyes I have ever seen. There is a word that I should hesitate to apply to them had I not within the last few hours heard it fall spontaneously from the lips of a by no means idealistic observer who last saw him only a few weeks ago. It is ‘Christlike.’ I do not claim that Haile Selassie is Christlike. He is, indeed, a very erring mortal. But, if the lonely bearing of an intolerable load can give to any human being a passing likeness to the Man of Sorrow, the epithet is not inapt. “His memory is long and not too kind. His recollection of unrecorded details or decisions has often disconcerted his counsellors. He is quick, but not demonstrative, in taking umbrage, and no slight is readily forgotten. But in the tortuous maze of diplomacy and intrigue through which he has had to thread his way, personal resentment has seldom stood noticeably between him and his essential purpose.” Reason for His Departure. Haile Selassie’s abandonment of his country is believed to have caused Signor Mussolini and others in Rome complete surprise. It is said that had he remained he would have received generous treatment at the hands of Italy and might even have been allowed to remain on the throne under Italian suzerainty. But Haile Selassie’s pride and the thought for his people, by whom it is said he was not “overlooked,” decided him in seek- ’ ing the aid of a British shfp to take him to Palestine. “Whnn the morale of our troops was broken by showers of mustard gas, it was evident that they could no longer face this inhuman form of warfare. Under these conditions it

would have been futile to'resist the Italian advance. It would, moreover, have exposed our soldiers and population to death and indescribable suffering,” he is reported to have said in explanation of his action. “Our presence at Addis Ababa or at any other place on Ethiopian territory thus became a definite menace, not only for our own population, but also for the numerous foreign community, especially at Addis Ababa. The open town of Harrar had already suffered severely. “We should have remained in Ethiopia if that could have been of service to the interests of our dear people, but neither our death nor our captivity could have achieved this purpose. After consultation with our dignitaries we came to the conclusion that we and the Imperial Princes could best i serve the interests of our people by continuing ih freedom abroad our efforts to save the 1000-years-old independence of Ethiopia.” Just what results those efforts will achieve is difficult to estimate. Sympathy for a defeated Emperor is one thing, help to replace him is another. Mussolini has declared his “triumph” and proclaimed a new emperor. The League of Nations is discredited, Europe is unsettled by the train of events. Haile Selassie will look to the League to redress his wrongs. Whether' he will look in vain is the question all sympathisers are now asking.