THE HONGKONG TELEGRAFII, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1996.
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The Man
With a
Load Of Patience
HAILE SELASSIE is to Abyssinia what Peter many hundreds of enthusiastic letters from Bedford owners all the Great was to Russia, over the world have shown that what Frederick the Great the Bedford is popular wherever was to Prussia, what ill- It goes. Why this success ? starred Amanullah hoped- For, in designing the Bedford in vain to be to. Afghanis range, Vauxhall experts studied overseas conditions at first hand. tan-the ruler to prise his They learnt what was wanted in country from the barnacle trucks from the very men who growth of the past and set were going to use them.
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The
Hongkong Telegraph.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1936.
LATE IN THE DAY
Such men have difficult paths. to tread. The Romanov chose the road of bestial cruelty; the Hohenzollern, the street of cold ruthlessness; Halle Selassie, the lane of patience.
He was born-in 1891-to. high estate. His great uncle was the Emperor Menelck, who shattered the pride of Italy at Adown in 1896. He can trace his lineage back to Royal Solomon and Sheba's Queen.
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in
Menelek died in 1913. His daughter, the Empress Judith, was by temperament a nun. His heir, the Emperor Lidj Yasu, was by temperament a voluptuary. The Rases (local lords)-cach supreme within the Government of. Menelek. European-staffed schools
Ababa a his own
domain-greeted the But, unlike his great uncle, he Addis
pioneering collapse of the strong central looked out into the world and work in which his principal sup- Government with delight. At saw that Abyssinia was but a porter was Dr. Martin, now the last the good old days should shadow kingdom: where men Ethiopian Minister in London. come again: the Emperor in his ate raw meat; where slaves He sent promising young Abys- harem, the Queen in her church, dragged out a loathsome exis- sinians abroad to be educated and every Ras his own monarch, tence; where the grace of cul- at his own expense. He worked ture could not flourish nor the slowly, cautiously, forcing new Unhappily for their plans, glory of civilisation shine. ideas gradually upon his people.. Lidj turned from the Christen- dom of his tradition to Islam- a faith more to his physica! taste.. Islam meant Turkey and the Mad Mullah.
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His first step was to create- with French capital-a railway. It ran from Jibuti, the port of French Somaliland, to Addis
Ababa, his own city. It was opened in 1918,
啭
**
谳
He was the first ruler of his land since the Queen of Sheba to pass its frontiers. He went
to Aden in 1922. He came to Europe in 1924.
Along that iron road came Between those two visits in and the medium or exchange, lieved to be his greatest stroke. not only produce and trade 1923-he achieved what he be but visions of an Abyssinia He made Abyssinia a member
of the League of Nations.
by One Who Knows Him
Public reaction to the efforts being made at Geneva to secure agreement on the oil embargo question will probably be that it is decidedly late in the day, with Ethiopia almost prostrate be And Britain, at war with fore the onrush of Italy's mill- Turkey and the Mullah, Britain tary machine, to talk of men whose interest in Abyssinin is Bures aimed at bringing the ag-centred in Lake Tana, the head- free and great. gressor to a standstill. But if waters of the Blue Nile, looked there has been dilly-dallying over askance on this budding alli- this issue, the fault cannot be ance. laid at the door of Britain, who, from the very start of sane- tions, has favoured the inclusion of oil in the embargo. Mr. Anthony Eden, some few days Album No. 245 Arthur Schnabel, Piano, and
London Philharmonic Orchestra. ago, summarised what must be the attitude of every reasonable man-that oil is a sanction like
Pretenders, appeared-ambl- It was not easy to join ft. any other and must be judged
In 1916 Lidj Yasu was de- tious Rases resenting the reins Sniffy committees spoke of the by the same criterion, namely, posed. Judith was Empress, of government. Some he put arms traffic. Supercilious groups whether its imposition will help But she was no ruler and she down with his troops. One he raised their eyebrows and in to stop the war. That is the knew it. The whole object of the collective Ras Tafari, was named her battle..
young leader, challenged to the ordeal of quired loftily if a slave atate had any place in the concert of system which the very existence Chater Road.
Regent.
civilisation. of the League envisages. Had imposed oll sanctions been months ago, the situation in tion and force judiciously Ethiopiato-day would have blended, the Regent recreated undoubtedly worn an entirely different aspect. Britain has
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all along played the role of a
A young man of twenty-five, named Ras Tafari, son of the great chieftain, Ras Makonnen,
given command of the. was forces to put down Lidj Yasu and set Judith as sole ruler of the land.
1
By a combination of concilia-
strong adherent to the League, NOTES OF THE DAY
anxious to restore the prestige
of that organisation by the en- END OF AN EMPIRE? forcement of the world's will on
a declared aggressor. She has
There is something rather touch now been forced, consequent on the procrastination of others,ing in the report that, in the virtually to take the lead. extremity of surrender to over- whelming odds, in the midst of a France is prepared, though most crumbling Empire and with his reluctantly, to come into line, army in light, the Emperor-of- and, as a gesture to her, Britain Ethiopia turns to Great Britain in is willing that a last-minute a last appeal to see that justice la effort should be made to secure done. It may shame some of us. a settlement of the dispute, on Still, it would be a deep-dyed cynle the condition that no undue de- who saw anything in that cry for lay is involved. But he would succour but a pleading to a Power be a super-optimist who would whose integrity and honour shine think that at this juncture, brightly still in Ethiopian eyes, in flushed with successive victories Rpite of the accusations from those who think Great Britain has not against an ill-equipped foe, Italy kept faith with the Lion of Juda is prepared to listen to any Some of us may feel a pang of terms short of complete capitu- conscience in that the Empire did lation by Ethiopia. The Italian not take an earlier and firmer stand attitude all along has been a to defend Ethiopia against aggres determination to push her ad- slon; for, after all, in spite of the venture to a successful conclu- argumenta excusing the Italian sion-to use the words of Mus- campaign in East Africa, and the solini, uttered when the issue analogies which supposedly show was far more in doubt than it that Italy is merely following the is to-day, "Italy will pursue her path Britain took to build herself aims with Geneva, without an Empire, there was good cause Geneva, or against Geneva." for British intervention. When Britain bullt an Empire we had wo Bluntly expressed, this means League of Nationa; and, those who nothing short of defiance of the subscribed to the principles on fifty nations who have agreed which the League was founded ne- that Italy should be opposed in cepted the changed conditions and her African ambitions. That is foreswore the old, romantic policy the situation which still per- of expansion by conquest. Italy sists, and it is only shutting and Ethiopia wore fellow members
(Continued on Page 7) one's eyes to the facts to think
that Italy is at this moment: in
any mood to consider a com- will. Once having started on promise adjustment. Truism the road of, sanctions, the ex- though it be, the truth is that tension thereof is a logical pro- the League has reached the cess.Nations who hesitate to inost critical point in its career, make full use of this eleventh- If fresh pressure is not brought hour opportunity may well live on Italy at this juncture we to run the day. There will be may well despair of the utility a sorry future for humanity, If of the League or of the power the law of might is henceforth of its members to nesert their to be permitted free rein
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They fought before lines of warriors clad in leopard-skins, crowned with lion-manes. They fought with the weapons that had served their race for cen- turies-swords.
The Pretender was tall and, strong. But Ras Tafari, short, frail, delicate-handed, howed off his rival's head.
In 1921 Lidj Yasu fell into his hands.
In the 1920's Ras Tafari pro-
apace. gressed
L
Ras Tafari answered the second question by two gestures: the publication of an edict, de- creerng that the children of slaves should be born free, and the freeing by proclamation of many of the slaves already in bondage.
Then he came to Europe with a train of twenty Roses, and a convoy of wild animals which he scattered as largesse or left by way of visiting cards He opened as he went.
SIDE GLANCES By George Clark
"Go: abendr
Travel-be a soldier of fortune.
kooping you.
He came to England,, dined. at Buckingham Palace, wont to the Tower In a bowler hat above. his Ethiopian robes, lunched with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He recolved from the King the crown of his romote ances- tor, the Emperor Theodore, which had been seized by Napler after the victory of Magdala in 1868.
He was feted in France, entertained in Italy, welcomed in Egypt. The silent young man-he was thirty-three- proved very popular.
"He saw the military might of Europe: the discipline, the equipment, the mechanisation. He saw tanks and airplanes: He saw hospitals, schools, Institu- tions. He saw-civilisation.
His tour quickened his ambi- tion for his own land. Abys- sinia should possess all these things, too....
As he strove, Ras Tafari was confronted with two dilleulties.. His countrymen claimed he went too fast: his European suppor- ters complained he went too slowly.
The war, if it does nothing - else, will strengthen. the hands of the Emporor against the re- actionary chiefs, who are now convinced of the necessity of modernisation.
The Empress Judith-a wizened little pigmy of a women, with a bodyguard of 10,000 and a menagerie of lions-was a re- actionary. For her the old ways were best. She opposed innova- tion tooth and nail. Supporting her were all the Rases. who res sented government from Addis
Ababa.
There was a plot to kidnap Ras Tafari. For a month the long-headed sanity of the Regent issue was, uncertain. Then the prevailed, and the rebellion was
crushed.
come
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Later still Judith's husband Guksa led a rebellion against the Regent, who, in 1928, had be- King-Negus Nagusti, King of Kings, was his official title. Ras Tafarl took the field himself and broke the rebellion. Guksa was slain.
Judith was ill with the typhoid that is always rife in Abyssinia. The doctors ordered her to eat. The priests absolved her from keeping the fast of Lent. But she would not obey either her physicians or her priests. So she died.
Ras Tafari was in effect the sole ruler of Abyssinia..
In 1982 he was crowned Em- peror. The Duke of Gloucester represented Britain."
Ras Tafari, took the name Haile from the father of Mene- Jek; Selassie. was the name of the House of Solomon...
The coronation was not with- out humour. Delicate food, fine wines were served to the guests from Europe. Slaughtered bulls and mead gave provender to the local guests.
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The Emperor wanted-above all things-peace. Peace in which to consolidate his own position. Peace. in which to bring to fruition his plans of reform;
- He sent to Italy three, lons one for the King, one for Crown Prince Umberto, one for Mus30- lini, "in admiration of Fascism.”
But the stain of Adowa still lay 'over. Rome.
Haile Selassie was not afraid. Was he not a member of the League? Had he not sworn to n Covenant that should protect him and his land? Was not Italy a fellow member, bound by an equal nath?
Talk,
conversations, more talk, parleys, still talk--and
finally War.
The Emperor is something of a scholar. He speaks good French and, when pressed, fair English. He was born In Harar, and was educated at the Roman Catholic mission school there and at a more advanced Catholic school at Addis Ababa, He has written a commentary on the New Testament,
He is married, and happily married, to Menen, whom he wed in 1912, and who has borne him five children whom he lovea,
Now the Conquering Lion of Judah has been called to con- quer or to die