SURPRISE ATTACK.

Wairarapa Age, 13 February 1936, Page 5

SURPRISE ATTACK.

ABYSSINIANS CAPTURE CURAT SEVERE LOSSES REPORTED. IMPORTANT WATER SUPPLIES IN VICINITY. ADDIS ABABA, February 11. It is announced that despite the silence of Rome communiques Abyssinians under Ras Nasibou and Wehib Pasha after heavy fighting expelled the Italians from Curat, fifty miles south-east of Sasabaneh, as the result of a surprise attack. There were severe losses on both sides. The Addis Ababa correspondent of “The Times” confirms the capture of Curat, which commands important water supplies, by two hundred Abyssinians after a hand-to-hand, struggle in barbed wire. AEGEAN SEA FORCES. ITALIANS STRENGTHENED. ATHENS, February 11. A thousand Italian airmen have arrived at Leros Island in order to reinforce the Italian fleet in the Aegean Sea. Rhodes is encircled by wire barriers and all roads are fortified. The air force is co-operating with naval and submarine manoeuvres and mines have been placed in local waters. “BRITISH PROFIT.” AT EXPENSE OF ITALIAN GRIEF. (Received Wednesday, 11.25 p.m.) ROME, February 12. The Italian Press now openly associates the Italian death roll in Abyssinia with British ammunition. The “Tevere” says: “Every name in the list of our fallen is presupposed to be by an EngHsh cartridge. Our grief is British profit. Lieut.-Colonel Holt (British Military Attache in Addis Ababa) can draw up his first balance sheet of British affairs m Abyssinia —munitions supplied and gold pocketed—but' the gold is stained with the blood of our brave youth.” “The Times” points out that as the British military attache at Addis Ababa, it is Colonel Holt’s duty to visit the Abyssinian army headquarters at Dessie, which the French and American military attaches have similarly visited.