FALL OF SACRED AKSUM

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1935, Page 5

FALL OF SACRED AKSUM

PRIESTS SUBMIT TO ITALIANS EMPEROR DECLARES FOR REVENGE TERRIFIC FIGHTING IN OGADEN By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, October 14. THE Italians have occupied the holy town of Aksum, which submitted without fighting, reports the Adowa correspondent of the British United Press. No military forces were seen near the town, whose priests, accompanied by the heads of 13 monasteries, submitted to General Maravigna, Commander of the Second Army Corps. The submission of the Coptic priests at Aksum and elsewhere in the occupied area is of great political importance because they are the real rulers of the people. Those on the spot believe that Degiac Haile Selassie Gougsa’s desertion and the submission of the Aksum priests and Aksum, which is the Ethiopian Mecca, are the most significant events of the war. The Italians are delaying their advance from Aksum until news of the submission spreads, as they believe it will produce fuither submissions. The Emperor Haile Selassie wept when he heard of the fall of Aksum, which to the Abyssinians is what Rome is to the Catholics and Mecca is to the Mohammedans, says the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent. He summoned Abounda, head of the Abyssinian Church, and instructed him to proclaim holy war, raise the largest army ever seen in Ethiopia, and recapture the city. Abounda wept and promised to urge the churches to rouse the nation to a supreme effort. A smashing attack by Italy on the southern front is reported to have cost the Abyssinians 18,000\ lives, including 400 civilians. Massed aeroplanes dropped gas and high explosive bombs and spread death and terror.