“GOD WILL REMEMBER.”

Wairarapa Age, 2 July 1936, Page 5

“GOD WILL REMEMBER.”

Haile Selassie’s Appeal To The League. BITTER PROTEST AGAINST DESERTION. INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUES DENOUNCED. COLLECTIVE SECURITY AT STAKE GENEVA, June 30. A frail, lonely figure, speaking a language none of the delegates understood, Haile Selassie. Emperor of Abyssinia, appealed to the League not to abandon his unhappy country. Only his bearing and manner indicated the extent to which he personally was moved, but the words, which were immediately translated from Amharic through an automatic multiphone, confirmed his obvious appeal. 4 4 God and history will remember your judgment/ ’ he said. Nevertheless the speech was received with mingled feelings. The representatives of the fifty-two nations were visibly embarrassed by the Negus’s taunts at their ineffectiveness to deal with the aggressor. The speech, from beginning to end, sounded a stern denunciation of international intrigues. The Emperor complained bitterly of the failure of the League’s promise of support, and he announced that whatever the League was going to do Ethiopia was not going to bow to force. There was mild applause from many delegates and louder applause from the galleries when the Emperor descended from the rostrum. As he left the building ffie wag given an ovation by the I crowds outside. The Assembly adjourned until the .anorning. when seven delegates are f scheduled to speak, including the British, Canadian, and South African. It has been learned that the Italians were most anxious that the Emperor’s speech should not be delivered to-day, fearing that it would spoil the effect of their own Note. ITALY ACCUSED. Haile Selassie said that Ethiopia, under his guidance, had become more unified. He would have been able to procure greater results if obstacles had not been placed in his way by the Italian Government, which continually stirred up revolt. The Italians had not ceased for fourteen years their preparations for conquest, yet Abyssinia had had confidence in the treaties to which Italy and other Powers had subscribed. In a passage pnsuißabiy referring to France he said: “It Is certain that the situation would not have taken the development it had if a certain Government In Europe had not felt it necessary to obtain the friendship of Italy. A secret treaty has really affected the whole coarse of events. Fifty-two countries assured me in October that the aggressor would not be successful. When I found it necessary in the first seven months of 1935 to provide arms and ammunition which Abyssinia hitherto did not possess I found many Governments had embargoes to prevent my doing so. Italy, however, was able to obtain through the Ruev Canal all the latest weapons. in this great struggle, there was a naTTCn of 32,000,000 people with an unlimited supply of the most modern death-dealing weapons opposed to < small and weak State of 12,000,000 entirely unprovided with modern weapons. What real assistance has been granted to my country by these fifty-two States under the Covenant! Has every nation considered that an act of war has been personally committed against it, as the Covenant soys it should do!” PLEA FOB BROKEN PEOPLE. Haile Selassie referred to Austria, Hungary, and Albania, who had refused to participate in sanctions, and said that the other Powers, while proclaiming their adherence to the League principles, opposed the principles being put into action. Abyssinia had asked for financial assistance from the League in vain. What, therefore, did Article 16 meant Use ef the Jibuti railway was denied to Abyssinia throughout the operations, but was now being used as the main source of supply for the Italian army of occupation. Referring to statements in the Parliaments of two great Powers (presumably Britain and France) that they had decided to give up sanctions, the Negus said: “I come to this Assembly to assert that this problem cannot be settled in this manner. It is not merely a settlement of the Italo-Ethiopian dispute that is at stake, it is the future of all those little countries who place trust to the sanctity of treaties. It is the principle of collective security and International morality that J at stake. “I appeal to you at this moment, when my people are threatened with extermination, at this last moment when the League can intervene to save my broken people, that God and history will remember your judgment. The Ethiopian Emperor and his people ere not going to bow to force. What are you going to dot”