HOMEWARD FROM ABYSSINIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 101, 30 April 1937, Page 7

HOMEWARD FROM ABYSSINIA

N.Z. MISSIONARY’S WIDOW HER HUSBAND’S DEATH FELL DURING ITALIAN ADVANCE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Received April 29, 11.24 p.m. SYDNEY, April 29. The New Zealander, Mrs. M. E. Mitchell, whose husband, a missionary, was killed in Abyssinia, has arrived al Sydney on her homeward voyage to Invercargill with her baby son and Miss M. A. McMillan, of Dunedin, another missionary. Mrs Mitchell told an interviewer that her husband was missionary in the Gurage Province, about four days’ trek from Addis Ababa. “We were in the direct line of the Italian army pushing up from the South,” she said. “Ras Desta urged us to seek safety at his capital, Yega Alam. When he was forced to retreat I went to Addis Ababa. My husband was asked to return to Addis Ababa with Red Cross supplies, and I think he was trying to get to us when he was killed. Although he was killed in May I did not hear of his death until August.” Mrs. Mitchell explained that the Italians did not look with particular favour on British missionaries, but to the time she left nothing was done to clear them from the country. She was only 2i miles from Addis Ababa when the massacres occurred following the attempt on the life of Graziani, but she refused to speak of the subject, saying, “that is not my job.”