Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 197, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 October 1935 — Page 6

PAGE 6

Beleaguered Ethiopia Offers Many Problems to Italian Invaders

r I ''HE accompanying maps are ■*- presented today by The Indianapolis Times to show its readers the extent of Great Britain’s and Italy's holdings in East Africa. Children may find these color maps useful in school and The Times recommends that they be clipped and saved With more than 400.000.000 natives under its rule, Britain Is liccp’y concerned over the Italian

■ SP ;„ yyi- y v < f 5 fyr, t /sfr-s’f r (main base of BRITISH I J P K T jg —, \ JLlfl IQTH S |MEDIT£RBAM£AN Tu | nis^MALT^ 4 \ J Mediterranean I => Rabat® @l''** m Ifortified British! ® ■£! A British fleet i Beirut SGA I ’ g* r* ft I’’ - &gjjp •> MpV NAVAL BASE CONCENTRATED f k J/x > J t, XiO^ 0 ALGERIA \ g Showing SntLsfi arwL 1 ROADWAY to BORDER ? POKTOF ERITREA I • S® IOO 'SO MO * '\ v C^f > 2500 from In SCALE qT’milES* ASSIUtO^^^ i ir\w a s' . _/V 'I i — — 8S 4j/y" > \ 'S Mecca cf \I GE la -* AV “ ; “ w| WILDgRNEIs Bk| l ~ lowllhds ON ' i. A tit nl J/ ****** ****** ( m ARABIA ]( V S N_ be ~J"‘' .r&W'Fr ... ■■- -4 ■— kA east and r A O, ■."?!■■ n s/j \ EN; , jJ\| / ( ' ,V is •‘• ~,< v. < SOUTHEAST ’ | nCADWATCR, • ;: ' <V, ' r "-- ,: "torrid \ C [j V \ I Q BLUE NILE fV‘' rt, I A V C I A \ \ 1| • ETH,OP,A,S ONLV ANGLO 'v ( ♦ WAM *^ # ™ SEA SEbF SUDA |v K i u i '>7 > A aO S KhaHoumO\ T \ AHpn ’L 9 : K^6!m<r N^^ #rauA 5* I 1 ' >0 r: ; - vt: • •omen (J / \ Ift) oeroera gjM x sS v > A 1 iBK-v X J/ aj n j< aul. \ British \D % /j,) n— ? r*./, \ impassable Addis Ababa Vsomalilano,^^^ /7 j, *p!X \ax desert r | (( \ r • jj f’^ r ~ 'l ''“•*<>. T HIo ey R FROM UGANDA . K N V A Ocean CONGO <>d isc >o

invasion of Ethiopia. Whatever the military outcome of the war, England is worried lest its farflung subject races spring into revolt. Britain is fearful that the Italian invasion will embitter the colored races under the Union Jack and outrage their unquestioned pro-Ethiopian sympathies. The latest moves in the drive for peace have come from Premier

Benito Mussolini of Italy who has withdrawn one battalion of troops from Libya, a direct bid, of course, for Britain to move part of its gigantic fleet from the Mediterranean. England’s war dogs patrol the Mediterranean and several warships are stationed at the entrance to the Suez Canal, in full v ; ew of every Italian troopship entering the Canal.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

T IFE on thie Isthmus of Suez hangs on a thin thread of water running to the Nile 150 miles away. Passengers on liners in the canal are struck, first, by all the things they have read about, bumboats. fezzes, veiled women, by methodical camels, and the lucky fellow’s who dive for coins. But aside from the straightdrawn canal itself, the most last-

i ing impression is the 10-foot wide I fresh-water canal which was cut through the desert. All drinking water, except for those who can afford the bottled European article, comes from it. It is a brief introduction to the water problems now confronting the Italians in East Africa. 808 T EAVING Port Said for the A-' south, the main canal cuts straight for Kantara. terminus of

the railay to Jerusalem. The Bible City is only 10 hours across the desert, and from the costumes and activities of the natives along the canal. Biblical times might be only 10 years ago. The high cut Arabian bank of the canal gives directly on to the desert, which extends without break 800 miles east to the Persian gulf and twice as far to the Indian Ocean on the south. The onlv

travelers on this bank are the camel squads of the canal’s patrol force. 808 TTEGETATION on the Red Sea " ends at Suez and the shores are dusty mountains without a sign of life. At Sinai, dimly visible through the heat haze from the boat there is a monastery. Then the sea widens, the shore Oils awav over the horizon, and

OCT. 26,1935

there is nothing left but the heat. When it is 90 degrees above in the Red Sea it is cool. When there is a West wind (a rare luxury in the Red Sea) it is doutbful that the temperature will ever go above 95—in the shade. Things are not so good if the wind is following the ship. Then it does no good and the mercury shoots past the 100 mark. BUB 'T'HE real test comes with an -*- East wind, which gathers in Baluchistan, boils across 1000 miles of Arabian desert to the sea and sends the thermometer soaring to 110 and 115 (in the shade). “Os course, it's hotter on shore," ship's officers explain. They distribute to passengers a booklet on Djibouti, which starts off: "Climate—There are two well | defined seasons, the one from OcI tober to May, easily endurable . . ." Massawa. headquarters base for | the Italian army in Eritrea, is worse. It is completely locked into the Red Sea and there rarely | is relief from the boiling heat. BBS pvJIBOUTI welcomes its visitors with a stinging sand whipped off its barren hills and blown into the teeth of the ships at anchor | off the jetty. Those who must wait in Djibouti for the train to Addis Ababa—no one ever stays in Djibouti if he i can help it—find hotel rooms and : lace the prospect of two days in j inch-deep dust, sand and scorching sun and wind. Ethiopia itself is a mountainous I country, indescribably wild and ! magnificent in spots. From the I heat-baked Danakil region on the east, it sweeps to the craggy’ plai teau, and the mountains roll toward Addis Ababa. B B B 'T'HERE are few trails and the i Italian army’s slow progress I through the northern part of ; Ethiopia is due chiefly to the necessity for road-building by the Italian engineers. Premier Mussolini has almost as I many laborers in Ethiopia as he has soldiers and the war, in actuality, is an engineers’ war. They are building bridges, roads, and forcing their way through incredibly wild territory. War correspondents with the northern Italian army have sent : dispatches lauding the work of the trail-blazers as the one big accomplishment to date. B B B 'T'HE long-heralded “big push" A of the Italian army into | Ethiopia may come Monday, it is | reported in war dispatches. Monj day is the anniversary of the i Fascist “March on Rome" and some correspondents believe Premier Mussolini has ordered a four-army thrust at the African kingdom for that day. The accompanying maps show just what Italy is facing in its efforts to reach Addis Ababa. They also show’ the adjoining territories of Britain and Italy. Britain has announced that it plans no isolated action against 11 Duce and the Fascist dictator has answered by an outright bid for peace. It is believed in some quarters j that the war may end when the Italians have seized control of : both Tigre and Ogaden provinces, the former in the north, the latter in the southeast. To this, observers add, Mussolini may demand railroad rights and other territorial alignments. But, in any event, it seems that years may pass before Italy will completely subjugate the wild peoI pies of Ethiopia. B B B T>UT, in the meantime no stone is being left unturned to permit the British to hold control of that thin red line from Gibraltar to Aden, and at the same time gain for Mussolini from Ethiopia enough concessions to satisfy 11 Duce and keep him in the role of a secondary naval power along this vital route. If this fails and it comes to war between England and Italy, then Great Britain will utilize the League of Nations to bestir world sentiment to the British side. Few diplomats believe that i either Rome or London is bluffing, j loly herself is worried by the London attitude and feels that this sudden, new menace is more threatening than anything that may happen in Abyssinia. And yet Mussolini is now in a position where he is utterly un- | able to turn back. His case may be summarized : thusly: He must have an outlet for his excess population —4O million people in a country one-third the i size of Ethiopia. He must have raw materials—which to date he has been buying from abroad, thereby creating an ever-increasing unfavorable trade balance. He must do something to relieve the unemployment conditions prevailing in Italy. His financial position is weak —he has already made levies on private capital. a b b A VICTORY would make him a first-class power. A victory would perpetuate his personal power a little longer. The case against him may be summarized briefly: Ethiopia will take a long time to conquer and to reduce to a state where colonization on any scale large enough to cut down the population at home in Italy is practical. A war will be pitifully expensive and many doubt the ability of , Mussolini's finances to withstand i any long drain on them.