AGAINST MUSSOLINI

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19665, 27 August 1935, Page 4

AGAINST MUSSOLINI

HOW ETHIOPIA WILL FIGHT, ITALY’S HARD TASK. “I am convinced that in the event of war the Italian army would be at a disadvantage,” the Emperor of Abyssinia declared recently, when he gave an audience to a special correspondent of the Paris Soir. Signor Mussolini, he said, had reflected fully before sending troops to Africa and had studied all the possible consequences that might ensue from war. ‘‘Nevertheless,’’ said the Emperor, ‘‘the Italian troops will encounter in the high mountains difficulties which they do not in the least foresee, and will not there be able to make full use of their modern armaments. The desert of Gaden is, moreover, absolutely withI out water fit to drink. Italy already,, to compensate for important defections from her forces due to illness, has started to recruit Somalis and Eritreans, whose to me to be problematical if they are called on to fight against others of their own race.’’

Asked how his army would be organised, the Emperor said seven principal chiefs would each command an army corps. They would work In touch with one another, each entrusted with his own task.

‘‘Our inferiority in armaments does not allow us to employ modern principles of war for all the regiments of each army corps, but these regiments will be assisted by numerous groups of scouts, hereditary warriors, who will maintain all their natural mobility and freedom of action.

‘‘What worries me most,” went on the Emperor, ‘‘is the lack of munitions. I deplore the unjust embargo of which I am the victim, and the sudden rupture of contracts with Belgian and Czechoslovakian firms and one American firm.”

Asked whether he still hoped for a peaceful outcome, Haile Sellassie declared his confidence in the League of Nations, “especially if France and Britain are on the side of right—-that ■is to say my side.” He emphasised that no concession, territorial or economical, in favour of Italy was possible, and concluded the interview by declaring: "If hostilities break out I shall be the first soldier of my army and shall share t'hc fortunes of my people.” I Invadors’ Handicaps. I Sir Alfred Pease, in a letter to the London Times says:— “I should like to point out that there is no likelihood of Italy being more successful in a second invasion of Abyssinia than she was before. There is no country that I know of where advances in military and other science give so little advantage to the invaders. In such a roadless and mountainous country motor, transport can give few advantages; after rains the condition of valleys and tracks must be seen to be believed. There arc no ports, towns, fortresses, factorios, or centres of population to bomb from the air. “I have been with an Abyssinian army. It is incredibly mobile: it does not march, il runs: if is not bumpered by a commissariat nor by transport, except the mules which go anywhere where a man can obtain foothold. The Abv c 'S ! nian pla'eau is some 9000 ft. in altitude, an altitude at which Europeans can scarcely breathe at a quick march, and this vast tableland Is crossed bv range after range o r high mountains. by stupendous gorges, and appalling fissures. Abyssinian armies have an uncanny way of appearing ‘out of the blue’ at the least expected places and moments ”