"Intolerable Presumption!"

In the Fascist Senate at Rome last week, Undersecretary for Colonies Alessandro Lessona had just finished arousing speech on his colonial budget, on conditions in the North African colony of Libya. Up to the tribune stomped Benito Mussolini himself.

"Honorable Senators!" he cried, and every Fascist leaned forward, knowing that potent words would follow: ". . . The problem of Italo-Ethiopian relations is the order of the day, and not only in Italy. . . . One rumor abroad in some foreign circles is to be denied formally immediately--a rumor of Franco-British diplomatic 'steps' in Rome.

"The very word 'step' is extremely distasteful. . . . The truth is that no step has been taken up to now. And, owing to Italo-Franco-British relations, it is most probable that there will not be any, even in the future. . . .

"I wish to add immediately and in the most explicit and solemn manner that we will send out all the soldiers we believe necessary. And no one can take upon himself the intolerable presumption to dictate to us concerning the character and volume of our precautionary measures! . . ."

Within a few hours all the world knew what this meant: Italy was determined to carry on her "war" with Abyssinia (TIME, Dec. 24, et seq.) and would brook no interference. Benito Mussolini wanted all Italy to understand that both France and Britain were backing him to the hilt.

France and Britain privately might be willing to let Italy go as far as she liked in Ethiopia in return for assorted favors in Europe, but the British Government for one could not afford to let British Liberals think so. "Steps" might be a distasteful word to Il Duce. Distasteful steps were promptly taken. Sir Eric Drummond, onetime Secretary General of the League of Nations, now Ambassador to Rome, was suddenly called back to London for a conference with the Cabinet. Hard-working Capt. Anthony Eden, only just recovered from a heart attack, was appointed British agent for a suddenly called Franco-British-Italian conference at Geneva to try to avert something almost as embarrassing as a war--formal action by the League of Nations Council, meeting this week in its 86th session. Since 1923 Abyssinia has been a League member in good standing.

France was as anxious to keep Italy from a too elaborate, too expensive campaign in Abyssinia for another reason. Keeping Nazi Germany from absorbing Austria and growing too big is a vital point in France's foreign policy. Italy long ago undertook to do that chore for her. With her own vivid memories of the expenses and difficulties of an African campaign, France was frightened last week that if Italy were once embarked on an Abyssinian campaign she would be forced to send so many troops to Africa that Adolf Hitler would have the chance of a lifetime to stage a coup d'etat in Austria.

Japanese Threat. It is easy to understand why France and Britain should not feel too unhappy at the idea of Italian control of Abyssinia. Their neighboring colonies have suffered severely from raids by Abyssinian tribesmen. Italy would probably stop that. Nineteenth Century Britain was content to discipline Abyssinia in hard-fought border skirmishes. Since then she has acquired peaceably what she wants most in the country: control of Lake Tsana, source of the Blue Nile and life blood of the thriving Sudan cotton fields. Djibouti in French Somaliland is the port of entry for all Abyssinia, and France already controls the only railroad in the country, that between Djibouti and Addis Ababa. There is little reason for her to waste men and money in the country. But France and Britain have one most distinct reason for wishing some white nation to control Abyssinia. For four years Japan has been quietly penetrating the country. Japanese farmers are growing Abyssinian cotton with increasing success, they have grabbed her textile market from under Britain's nose, they are becoming more and more free of dependence on British raw cotton for Japan's mills. Further, Japanese immigrants marry Abyssinians, treat them as equals. Practical colonial administrators call the Japanese penetration of Abyssinia a most serious threat to white supremacy throughout Africa.

5,000 Dead. Knowing only a little of Abyssinia, its blazing heat and freezing nights, its mosquito-infested swamps, fierce tribesmen, arid plains and almost impregnable mountains, what benefits then does Italy expect to get from its subjugation? Italian Finance Minister Count Paolo Thaon di Revel announced last week that the Italian expedition to Abyssinia had already cost the Fascist Government $50,000,000, and Italian troops have not yet crossed the frontier. Fascist bigwigs divide the Abyssinian advantages of the campaign into two groups, sentimental and practical.

Sentimental. 1) All the Fascist ranting and countermarching of the past 13 years have not wiped from Italian minds the memory of two disgraces: the bloody defeat of their army in 1896 by barbarous Abyssinian tribesmen, and Italy's ignominious rout by Austrians and Germans at Caporetto in 1917. Since then Benito Mussolini has built up a war machine that on paper holds its own with the best in Europe. Abyssinia in 1935 will be a chance to test its worth. To make that test more impressive it would be a purely Fascist war. The commander in the field is none other than one of the original Quadrumvirs of the Fascist March on Rome, bearded, long-nosed General Emilio de Bono. Now aged 68, he is faced with problems of supply and transportation to faze any war college in Europe.

2) Ardently does Italy need more colonies, feels bitterly that she was diddled out of her due share of the loot by the Treaty of Versailles. Abyssinia is a nut that other imperialistic countries have tried often to crack. Should Italy succeed, it would be a great feather in the Fascist cap.

Practical. 1) Italy's two East African colonies, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, are unconnected except by the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. As early as 1906, France and Britain gave her permission to build a railroad through Abyssinia to connect the two. Only a military expedition will make it possible.

2) More and more optimistic reports have come from explorers and surveyors of Abyssinia's natural resources. There is rich grazing land in the foothills and Japanese seem to grow cotton there, but most important of all, Italy's great war machine has been completely handicapped by the lack of oil in Italy. There is oil in Abyssinia, Britain is quite willing to let Italy have it, knowing that in case of emergencies she could cork that supply instantly at Aden and the Suez Canal.

Haile Selassie. As Regent of Abyssinia eleven years ago, Ethiopia's curly-bearded Power of Trinity was high enough in Italy's good graces to ride in a stage carriage with little King Victor Emanuel III (see cut), visit the Vatican and shake hands with Benito Mussolini. Last week he was in the unfortunate position of watching a tidal wave gather before him and being unable to do anything about it until it broke. One hundred thousand men and 1,000 Italian planes were mobilized on his borders, yet he dared not mobilize his own troops. Abyssinians, fiercest of fighters, are simple folk and 95% illiterate. And the word "mobilize" is too complicated for them to understand. When Abyssinians mobilize they start fighting--at once. Last week he could only put his trust in the League of Nations. In an unprecedented move for a head of state, he sent a 500-word telegram declaring that "Italy is illegally occupying an important part of Ethiopian territory," that "no agreement has been or will be possible . .. in Italy's present state of mind." To increase his popularity and authority with the outlying tribes there was one move he could make, and promptly did. He issued a decree abolishing the system of "gabbar" land holding.

As in medieval Europe, Abyssinian Emperors paid no salaries to their provincial governors and State officials but delegated to them certain amounts of "gabbar" land from which they were free to squeeze whatever taxes they could. Sixty percent of Abyssinia is "gabbar" land. Last week's decree, setting up a regular system of Federal taxation, if it is enforceable, will end serfdom in the country and enormously increase the power and prestige of the Emperor.

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