Ethiopia exports coffee, hides
and skins, and beeswax, chiefly to Great Britain and the United States. The
largest imports are salt from French Somaliland, cheap cotton yarn and piece
goods from Japan, India and England, and corrugated iron sheets from Belgium
and England. It is alleged that cheap Japanese goods have recently captured an
increasing share of Ethiopian market.
FOREIGN
POLICY WRITER EXPLAINS JUST WHY ITALY IS DETERMINED TO CONQUER ETHIOPIA
Presents Brief History Of Haile Selassie's
African Empire
Italians Face Critical Economic Situation, He
Declares
(William
Koren, jr. of the Foreign Policy Association, herewith presents the history of
Ethiopia and tells why Mussolini wants the country. The article was written for
the current issue of Foreign Policy Reports and the Central Press Association.)
By
WILLIAM KOREN, JR.
Oct 20, 1935
New York, Oct. 19 - Ethiopia,
also called Abyssinia or "land of mixed peoples," covers an area of
350,000 square miles in northern Africa which is entirely surrounded by the
colonial possessions of Great Britain, France and Italy.
From the hot semi-deserts of the
northeast and southeast, which border on the Italian colonies of Eritrea and
Somaliland, a plateau rises sharply 6,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. The
valley of the river Hawash - in which Ethiopia's only railway runs from Jibuti
in French Somaliland to the Capital, Addis Ababa - divides the plateau into
unequal sections; jungle filled gorges as much as 2,000 feet deep cut across
the tableland, impeding communication and transport. During the annual rains,
which are heaviest from June to September, travel is virtually impossible.
The population, estimated at
between 5,500,000 and 7,500,000, is divided into subject and ruling classes.
The ruling Amharas, who number close to 9,000,000 [illegible] and live on the
plateau, are of Hamitic origin with infiltrations of Semitic and Negro blood;
by religion they are Christians of the Coptic order, the head of their church
being appointed by the Patriarch of Alexandria. They expanded their control
over the whole of Ethiopia, including the outer provinces, during the past half
century.
Negros In Southwest
The Gallas [profanity; a derogatory
term used back then to refer to the Oromo people], most advanced of the subject
groups, include both Christian and Moslem tribes; they constitute the peasant
class. In the southwest are pagan Negroes and in the north, communities of Jews.
The unruly nomadic tribes of the
Danakil in the northeast and of the Ogaden in the southeast are Mohammedans.
The Ethiopian plateau, with a
temperature climate ideal for Europeans, is a rich agricultural country: It
yields two, and sometimes three, crops a year to the primitive methods of the
natives, who raise barley, millet, wheat and coffee; and provides excellent
grazing for cattle, sheep and goats.
Other natural resources remain
largely unexploited. These include cotton and sugar care, rubber and other
valuable trees, gold, platinum, iron, coal, copper, sulphur and potash salts.
The Ethiopian government has
granted foreigners a few concessions for raising coffee and cotton; in May,
1931, it proclaimed all alluvial mineral deposits to be state property.
Who Buys-and What
Ethiopia exports coffee, hides
and skins, and beeswax, chiefly to Great Britain and the United States. The
largest imports are salt from French Somaliland, cheap cotton yarn and piece
goods from Japan, India and England, and corrugated iron sheets from Belgium
and England. It is alleged that cheap Japanese goods have recently captured an
increasing share of Ethiopian market.
Total trade declined from nearly
$15,000,000 in 1929 to between $7,5000,000 and $20,00,000 in 1933. It passes
largely along the country's one railway, the French-controlled line from Jibuti
to Addis Ababa, a 486-mile journey which requires from 33 hour to five days.
Italy has only a small share in
direct trade with Ethiopia; transit trade by caravan through Eritrea is
estimated at 1 per cent of Ethiopia's total foreign commerce. Increased trade
and exploitation of the country are hampered by the lack of motor roads.
Absolute Ruler
Haile Selassie I, Negus Negasti
or "King of Kings," is emperor and absolute ruler of Ethiopia. On
July 16, 1931, he voluntarily proclaimed a constitution which set up a
parliament of two houses but his is an advisory body appointed by the emperor.
The ancient provincial divisions are ruled by direct appointees of the emperor,
who command the garrisons, collect taxes and dispense justice. Order of the
emperor must be transmitted through them to lesser officers for execution.
Because of this hierarchic system and the slowness of communication and travel,
certain of the local chieftians, or rases, enjoys a considerable amount of
actual independence. The nomadis tribes of the distant Danakli and Ogaden are
not administered from Addis Ababa, and tend to disregard national frontiers in
the pursuit of tribal feuds.
Improving Government
Haile Selassie is atempting [sic]
to improve education, the administration of justice, and public health
facilities. He has also employed a Belgian military mission to train the
imperial bodyguard of 3,000 men, which is equipped with anti-aircraft guns,
automatic rifles and machine guns. Outside Addis Ababa, however, modernization
progresses slowly. The standing army of 100,000, which garrisons the provinces,
and the armed followers of local chiefs, who may number as many as 600,000
possess probably only 100,000 modern rifles in all. The whole of the fighting
forces is handicapped by lack of ammunition and transport.
Domestic slavery is a recognized
institution, but is being gradually eliminated. An edict of March 31, 1924,
provided for the emancipation of children born of slaves and decreed severe
penalties for failure to suppress the slave trade. A second law, of July 15,
1931, declared that slaves should be freed immediately on the death of their
master. From September 1, 1933, to August 15, 1934, 2,647 slaves were sentenced
for offenses under these laws.
In League of Nations
Ethiopia was admitted to
membership in the League of Nations on September 28, 1923. As a condition of
admittance it assumed two obligations incumbent on European powers possessing
territory in Africa and on the Red Sea: To "endeavor to secure the
complete suppression of slavery ... and slave trade," and to prohibit the
acquisition of arms by unauthorized persons within its territory.
On August 21, 1930, Ethiopia
signed a treaty with Great Britain, France and Italy designed to implement this
pledge and enable the emperor "to obtain all the arms and munitions
necessary for a defense of his territories from external aggression."
Ethiopia agreed that no arms, ammunition or implements of war should be
imported except under order in writing signed by the emperor; it also engaged
to publish the statistics of all arms purchased and to prevent their transfer
from the hands of the governments or its subordinates.
The European signatories agreed
to export arms to Ethiopia only under a license system, to publish statistics
of all shipments, and to refuse transit of arms "if the attitude or the
disturbed condition of Ethiopia constitutes threat to peace or public order."
Italy's Needs Unsatisfied.
The agreements so far concluded
by Italy with Ethiopia and with European powers have neither satisfied its
colonial ambitions nor opened up the trade essential to the economic
development of its East African colonies. Italy lacks iron, coal, oil, cotton
and other essential raw materials, while its agricultural produce is
insufficient to feed the population, which is increasing by nearly 500,000 a
year with government encouragement. Britain and France, moreover, far
outdistanced Italy in the race for colonies. Those parts of Africa which fell
to Italy provided neither the needed raw materials nor opportunities or
colonization.
Italy's possessions in East
Africa have failed to become economic assets. Largely unfit for white
colonization, they have a total Italian population of only 6,200. The budgets
of both Eritrea and Somaliland must be balanced by large grants from the mother
country; their trade balances are heavily adverse. One-half of Somaliland would
repay extensive irrigation; but the natives, once freed from slavely [sic],
have been loath to work, so that foodstuffs have had to be imported. The
development of Eritrea is especially dependent on trade with Ethiopia.
Italy's Economic Plight
At present Italy is faced with a
critical economic situation. Under the impact of the world depression the
national budget has shown substantial deficits since 1930-31. Drastic deflation
has caused a continuing decline in wholesale prices and successive reductions
in wages without achieving a corresponding decrease in the cost of living.
Maintenance of the gold standard has handicapped the principal exporting
industries - silk, rayon, cotton goods - in competition with British and
Japanese rivals.
In order to minimize its
unfavorable trade balance, Italy instituted a licensing system which
drastically curtailed all imports except essential raw materials and
foodstuffs. ...
To Mussolini, control of Ethiopia
offers a tempting solution for many problems of Italy and its colonies.
Ethiopia possesses coal, iron and possibly oil; it is particularly well suited
to the growing of fine quality, long-staple cotton, which Italy at present
imports almost entirely from foreign sources.
A railway link between Eritrea
and Somaliland across Ethiopia would enable Italy to enrich its colonies by the
transit trade now carried on the Jibuti railway.
Would Help Industries
In the immediate situation the
development of Ethiopia would benefit the Italian construction industries, and
political control might enable Italy to displace Japan as the chief supplier of
cotton goods to the Ethiopians.
Acquisition of territory, by
increasing Italy's place in the sun, would direct the attention of taxpayers
away from their economic burdens.
War would further speed up home
industrial activity and eliminate unemployment.
An armed conquest of Ethiopia, to
which Fascist principles are by no means opposed, would wipe out the ranking
memories of Adoa.
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