Home Is the Negus

The steaming city of Addis Ababa last week prepared to welcome home its conquering Lion of Judah, Emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings, who was ousted from his throne by the Italians five years ago last week. Houses were decorated with the national colors (green, yellow & red) and native artists were busy painting pictures of the Negus as St. George slaying an Italian dragon with help from the British Army. Togaed Ethiopians massed in the main square and cheered as a radio announcer read out the names of the first 250 Italians to be sent to internment camps, while some 10,000 Italians moved into ghettos to await internment or deliverance.

In a dim, windswept palace on a hilltop outside Addis Ababa the Emperor received a New York Herald Tribune correspondent, bulky Hiram Blauvelt, and delivered himself of an interview. The Negus said he was grateful to the British for getting him back his throne; that he was grateful to the U.S. for the help sent in his country's time of distress; that he was glad Ethiopia was joining Britain and the U.S. as one of the world's free countries; that he was still a member of the American Museum of Natural History.

Correspondent Blauvelt duly noted this intelligence and backed out of the presence, inadvertently stepping on the tail of the Emperor's favorite dog, which let out a series of piercing yelps. Next morning the King of Kings mounted a twelve-foot dais and appointed three generals in his Army. His son, Crown Prince Asfa Wassan, he appointed a lieutenant general. His son, the Duke of Harar, he appointed a major general. The son of his second cousin, Chieftain Ras Kassa, he appointed a brigadier general. The two sons each got a kiss on each cheek for good measure.

At week's end, however, the Negus had still not made his triumphal re-entry into Addis Ababa.

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