Courage and Hope

A bug-eyed crowd of Egyptians lined the quayside at Suez last week as the British cruiser Enterprise passed through. Several dozen dejected Ethiopians could be seen under the quarter-deck awning, but among them was not the bearded, tiny figure all eyes sought. Haile Selassie, Conquered Lion of Judah, was below decks with a secretary checking over box after box of gold bars, clinking Maria Theresa silver thalers.

Down from the wireless room came a marine orderly. A syndicate of British newspapers offered $25,000 for a signed interview. Haile Selassie shook his kinky head, went on with his counting.

Early next morning the Enterprise was warped into a pier at Haifa, Palestine. A gangplank was run ashore and perspiring British sailors began unloading the personal treasure of Ethiopia's fugitive Emperor: six automobiles, ten tons of trunks, boxes, bales and other personal baggage, a pet python, 100 steel-bound cases containing coins and bullion. Only a pistol shot away lay the Italian steamer Carnaro loaded with pilgrims for the Holy Land.

First ashore went the dumpy Empress Menen, her two daughters, the 12-year-old Duke of Harar and Crown Prince Asfa Wassan. Then down the gangplank, to the mournful tweetle of the boatswain's pipe, stepped little Haile Selassie in a sun helmet and a long white cloak. The Carnaro's band burst into the Fascist anthem: Giovinezza! A British military band hurriedly sprayed the air with a brassy countermelody. With the little Emperor was his "good" son-in-law, Ras Desta Demtu, and Ras Kassa, who fought the Italians in the north. Sharp eyes could find no trace of lean Ras Nassibu, defender of Harar, who was last seen with the Emperor just before he sailed from Djibouti. Immediately sanguine tongues prattled that Ras Nassibu had gone back to fight some more for his country.

In Jerusalem worried High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope took time off from the Arab-Jewish riots that have plagued Jerusalem for a month to meet Haile Selassie at the station platform. A strike had tied up every taxi in the Holy City, but union leaders made a concession by permitting ten cabs to transfer the Royal party from the station to the King David Hotel. A great crowd had assembled behind armed British guards at the station square, burst into roars of "Long Live Ethiopia!" "Long Live Emperor Haile Selassie!" Big tears rolled down the little man's dusky cheeks.

In the Royal Family's ornate hotel suite, Haile Selassie showed reporters the raw burns on his hand: "I am ill," said he, "affected by noxious gas, but it is nothing. I am fortunate to escape with my life, whereas thousands of my brave people died." A Jewish barber came in and trimmed Haile Selassie's beard, now quite grey, before the little Emperor went to pray at the Ethiopian Church and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. "Have courage and hope," the Emperor told 200 weeping Coptic priests.

Back at the King David Hotel, a doctor allowed Haile Selassie to have only one visitor, a British bank manager. Together they went over the inventory of the treasure on which the Emperor must live for the rest of his life.What he brought on the Enterprise was estimated at a little over $5,000,000. One important item was already safely in a London vault, the imperial crown of Ethiopia. Solid gold, weighing more than three pounds, studded like a plum cake with rubies, diamonds, sapphires, it was shipped out of Addis Ababa before the fall of the city seemed imminent. To be nearer this last badge of authority left him, Haile Selassie was prepared to leave Jerusalem soon for London, possibly make a dash for Geneva later in the spring for a dramatic appearance before the League of Nations.

To his room in the King David Hotel porters carried a large radio set so that the Emperor might listen to Benito Mussolini's speech annexing Ethiopia (see col. 3). The Negus could stand only half of it, nervously snapped off the switch, went to bed all of a tremble.

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