ITALIAN CONQUEST

Wairarapa Daily Times, 25 May 1936, Page 5

ITALIAN CONQUEST

OVATION TO ITALIANS AT FRENCH LEGATION. Press Asajjfiaiaa Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, Saturday. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Rome correspondent reports that messages from Addis Ababa describe the French Legation staff’s reception and dinner in honour of Italian officers, at which M. Bodart, French Minister, after ordering the Legation Band to play the Fascist hymn and . the Marseillaise, made a speech expressing sympathy with the King of Italy, Signor Mussolini, and the Italian army. He. said they had brought order and civilisation, and would bring prosperity to the peoples of Abyssinia. The Italian guests received an ovation. Rome is already claiming that M. Bodart thus virtually , recognised the annexation, but this is strongly denied in French official circles. MASSACRE AT HARAR. OF RELIGIOUS COMPLEXION. (Received Monday, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. A massacre, by Italian Somalis, at Harar, took on a, religious complexion when about 200 Amharie Christians were killed in the first six days after the Italian occupation of the city. The victims were asked: “Are you for Islam? ’ ’ and if they did not answer immediately with the Mohammedan declaration of faith, they were shot down. BUNNER RELEASED. NOW AT DJIBOUTI. (Received Monday, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. The Foreign Office has received the news that Bunner has been released and is now at Djibouti,- undergoing anti-rabies treatment. A cablegram from London on Tuesday last said that Warrant-Officer Bunner, of the British Red Cross unit, has been arrested by the Italians at Diredawa, while he was ou the way to Aden for treatment of rabies. It was feared that the consequent delay would endanger his chances of recovery. ITALIAN BRUTALITY. ILL-TREATMENT OF BUNNER. (Received Monday, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. A copyright message from the “Times” Djibouti correspondent says that Warrtn-Officer L. J. Bunner tell* a remarkable story of official brutality. He was passing his luggage through the Customs at Diredawa on 15th May, preparatory to entraining, when he was told that the police commandant doubted his identity. The Consul, Mr Chapman Andrews, interviewed the Italian general on Bunner’s behalf, and Bunner returned to Harar, believing all well. He was arrested when entering the train on 16th May, and was cross-examined for three hours, through an interpreter, by the staff colonel, staff captain, and Intelligence Captain Lucetti, in the presence of squads of police. A ten-ycar-old Abyssinian boy denounced him as Rudolf Brunner, an* Austrian captain and chief of the Abyssinian intelligence service, as if such an organisation 'was conceivable. Bunner’s personal documents were examined, as his passport had preceded him, to Djibouti, but his Red Cross identification papers were given so little credence that the passport would hardly have fared better. . ' Captain Lucetti," holding an imaginary pistol to his own head, declared it was-’a matter of life and death, adding significantly “ To-morrow, b’ The tribupal refused, .to call in Mr Chapman Andrews, declaring that he was only a consul to the ex-Emperor Selassie, and no longer enjoyed any diplomatic status.. The remainder of the hearing was carried on in Italian and was not interpreted. .■ Bunner was refused a bed and blankets, and was marched to his prison, a small incinerator, and slept on the floor. He was again interviewed on 17th May. The “Times” correspondent informed the British authorities at Djibouti. Bunner left the incinerator at midnight on 18th. May, and scaled a 20ft. wall while the guard was courting Ethiopian women. Bunner walked out of Diredawa barefooted, since it was impossible to climb his prison wall 'in boots, and tramped .three days through, thorns along the hallway .line running to> Djibouti. He was two days without water. He bought sandshoes from a Somali, but found further progress impossible, so returned to Diredawa and collapsed, in a vomiting fit, in a native hut, whose owner reported the presence of a sick foreigner to the authorities. Meanwhile Mr Chapman Andrews was insisting upon an enquiry, and Bunner finally was allowed to depart with other members of the Red Cross, but his films and documents remain in the possession of : the Italians, whose feeble attempt to pretend that Bunner had tried to smuggle dollars broke down when the officer at the station admitted that it was a deliberate fake.

FASCIST YOUTH. ■ > PROCESSION IN ROME. (Received Monday, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, Sunday. Signor Mussolini, on horseback, for ninety minutes watched a procession of Fascist youth, including girls, in celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of Italy’s entry into the World War. The Duce, in a brief speech, said that Italy was relying on her youth to defend the Italian Empire. He added: "You will be invincible.”'