NO ATTACK

Taranaki Daily News, 30 October 1935, Page 5

NO ATTACK

QUIET IN NORTH

EXPECTED OFFENSIVE CAUTION OF ITALIANS LARGE FORCES POSSIBLE “SURPRISE FOR WORLD” By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Oct. 28. The expected Italian general offensive on all three Abyssinian fronts did not materialise, communiques merely confirming the separate pushes announced yesterday. The Italian headquarters consider that Ras Seyoum’s resistance, in accordance wtih the Emperor Haile Selassie’s advice, will not be formidable until the invaders approach Amba Laagi. The Italians welcome this as an opportunity for avenging a crushing defeat there inflicted on Major Toselli’s troops in 1895.' Nevertheless they are exercising every caution because they are chary of courting even a minor reverse in viw of the possibility of large Abyssinian concentrations west and south of the Italian left wing and a persistent feeling that after all the entry into Makale may not be a walkover. When General de Bono, who hitherto has employed almost exclusively native troops for the actual fighting, attains this objective he must accumulate vast quantities of stores for the next advance, besides making 60 miles of road and devoting a proportion of his troops to guarding lines of communication with his base. Meanwhile the native army corps of the Italian centre is pushing on south of the Mai Warre, a tributary of the Takkaze River. The British United Press at Harrar says the town is deserted. Every ablebodied person has gone to the front. Ras Nassibou says he is ready for a great test of Italian armaments and Abyssinian fortitude. “My generals report that they are convinced that the foe’s advance in Ogaden will fail and predict that the world will receive a great surprise,” says Ras Nassibou. A Rome communique says that the advance in the region of Farasmal continues almost unresisted and without a casualty. The Italians have now penetrated 20 miles. HARRAR SPEAKS AGAIN. Much to the relief of the Abyssinian headquarters Harrar as re-established wireless contact with Gorahai, the Ogaden fortress. Its silence was not due to the Italians having bombed the wireless station but to a temporary defect in the apparatus. An Abyssinian communique states that the Government has reason to believe that the chiefs whom • the Italians reported to have surrendered are non-ex-istent and their states unknown. The Italian flag flying over Adowa is the one hauled down when the Italians were defeated in 1896. An Abyssinian handed it to General Maravigna when he took possession of the town, stating that he was a telegraph clerk and had always loved Italy. When the Italians retreated he secured and jealously preserved the flag. Count Vinci, the Italian Minister at Addis Ababa, has arrived at Djibouti. Ras Seyoum has telegraphed headquarters saying that the Italians are immobile in their present positions north of Makale. He is remaining between them and that town, apparently unaware of a Blackshire advance to points 20 miles south-west of Adowa. Ras Ayalu has sent a mesage from the Sqflan-Eritrean border which officials believe discounts the Italian claims thau the Abyssinians were defeated in the Setit River attack. Ras Ayalu merely reports that two hostile aeroplanes carried out reconnaissance without using bombs or machine-guns. The News-Chronicle’s Massawa correspondent says that an aerial railway, similar to those used in the mountains on the Isonzo front in northern Italy in the Great War, is being constructed between Massawa and Asmara. The cable will swing supplies, including fairly heavy guns, across valleys by the most direct route. The length will be about 40 miles, compared with 50 miles of the existing steam railway. The Addis Ababa correspondent of the Times says that the Emperor is still officially unaware of the peace talks and receives in stony silence any suggestions that military reasons warrant discontinuation of warfare. The chief of these is supposed to be the inability of Abyssinia to feed its armies for more than a month. Haile Selassie believes that he has made ample provision, knowing that the mobilisation of the agricultural provinces absorbs only half the total man power, the remainder being left to cultivate the fields.