The Sunday People, Sun, Feb 02, 1941 ·Page 5
TODAY Haile Selassie is keeping a date with Destiny… It is no haphazard appointment…
From the moment when the curtain of Mussolini’s tyranny fell behind him on the day a British cruiser gave him sanctuary, he has patiently waited for this time.
He always knew it would come.
It has been my privilege to know the Negus Negusti – his official Ethiopian title, meaning King of Kings – from before the days the Duce first cast covetous eyes on the last “black” empire of history.
I have seen him at work and at play; in battle and in his study planning a new school; under the hail of Vittorio Mussolini’s gas bombs and when he lost his throne – the proud heritage of three thousand years.
Never has he lacked that calm, dignified poise one associates with true Kingship.
I last saw him shortly before he left England to organise the overthrow of Italy from within his own country. The brooding sadness that has overcast his whole bearing during more than four years of bitter exile had vanished. His eyes flashed with their old fire, his slight figure seemed to have become as tense as highly electric wire.
“It will not be long now,” he said simply, but in the tones of one whose word is law, “before my war drums echo from Gojjam to Danakil, from the Tigre to Harar. They will mark the end of Mussolini’s empire.”
In the welter of events which are now hastening the collapse of the new and unholy Roman Empire few realise how this most silent of kings has appreciated what he has called the unique help and understanding of the British people.
He can never repay it all, he told me, but when he is once more Emperor fact as well as in name, he has determined to apply the cream of his four years study of our social economy wherever it is possible in his own country – and through British advisers.
At the moment, however, there are more urgent matters before Haile Selassie, for the King of Kings must first satisfy the claims of those traditions which are still integral factors in the mental make-up of his wild fighting tribes.
The official communiqué described his return to Abyssinia in a single laconic sentence: “His Majesty the Emperor Haile Selassie has returned to his country, where he intends to make a prolonged stay.”
EFFICIENCY AND ACCURACY
I LIKE those words “prolonged stay”. To the Italians it must sound like the death knell of their regime
Some of the gaps of the last few months in one of the most amazing personal adventures of this war I can fill in, but others must necessarily be held over till the full story can be written. But I can tell the story of the opening chapters.
It began with the war drums.
Every Ras (feudal lord) of Ethiopia keeps his own staff of drummers. They are the Central African equivalent of a private wireless transmitting set.
Every evening when the events of the day have been classified and news of what is happening in other provinces is desired – news includes everything from rumours of State intrigue and the health of notables down to the excessive prices of coffee – the drummers “take over” the night.
Standard codes throb through the stiliness as the drums roll out their messages to be picked up by expert listeners, decoded and re-transmitted as and when required. I have known important messages reaching their destination 600 miles away in less than three hours.
Haile Selassie’s drum corps surpass all others in efficiency and accuracy. There are 45 members – now possibly increased – who can transmit orders in any Ethiopian vernacular.
INVARIABLY WON THROUGH
A MONG these are the “Oxford accent” Amhari of the Emperor’s own tribe, from which the official language of the Govern ment is taken, and others who speak the Galla, Somali, Danakil, Harari and Tigrean dialects.
The Emperor’s drums, too, have a tone and note of their own. It is not difficult to imagine the effect of their first message rolling across from the Indian frontier to tell his people that “Habet was near them and would be with them again – soon.
Habet is the name by which all Ethiopians refer to the Emperor. It means Father and is significant of the esteem in which they hold him.
The drums also throbbed other messages. They told of quiet white men – “officers in the army of my friend the great white King of England” – who would shortly come among them. They would be known by certain signs and their leader would carry the Emperor’s personal seal engraved with the sign of the Lion of Judah. All must obey the orders these white men even at the cost of their lives.
How well the patriots answered Habet’s call history will tell, but the experiences of the hand-picked band of white men selected to carry out one of the most dangerous tasks of the war deserves more than the brief communiqués have told.
How many they are is still an official secret, nor can I reveal their names, but two of them have been close friends over many years and few know the wild countyside better than they do.
Carrying the Emperor’s message, they have moved effortlessly through Italian strongholds, across Italian lines of communications like shadows in the night,
They have moved whole caravans of rifles and ammunition and new Maria Theresa silver thalers, the coin of the realm, through strongly held Italian provinces and they have invariably won through.
How they have raised the prestige of “the great white king” and lowered that of the “bullfrog of the Pontine marshes” may never be known – but they have done a job which Lawrence of Arabia would have felt honoured to tackle.
The arms were duly portioned out, the Maria Theresa silver thalers made mincemeat of the dirty paper lira. Together they prepared the ground for the last signal of the royal war drums – “The time is now. Today I have entered my country to take personal command.”
The moving ceremony in the secret river bed to welcome Haile Selassie’s return can hardly be visualised here. But it was merely a prelude to many more that will soon make up the pageantry to tomorrow’s Abyssinia.
When Haile Selassie becomes a public figure the colour and ceremony of his forebears come to life again. The ritual is one no true Oriental would willingly forgo.
HOMAGE OF HIS PEOPLE
IN his case religion plays an important part. Abyssinia belongs to the Coptic branch of the Orthodox Church, and native bishops and priests in gorgeous robes, in a huge umbrella covered procession, join in the display.
The Ethiopian umbrella which is used on these occasions is a magnificent embroidered canopy often more than 8 feet in diameter and requiring two men to carry.
But Haile Selassie, the army commander-in-chief, is another personality from the Emperor accepting the homage of his people.
I can picture him today, clad in the field service dress of a British general, personally directing operations in close consultation with his selected British staff.
Those who know him well have no doubt of of the cordiality which exists between them or the respect with which his staff regard him, for the British command are delighted to admit the Emperor’s ability as a first-grade commander.
His second-in-command, Ras Kassa, is also acknowledged as a master of guerilla and mountain warfare. It was Ras Kassa who, commanding only ill-armed Abyssinians, rolled up the flower of General de Bono’s army in in 1935 and caused the dismissal of this Fascist leader.
REFUSED TO SELL HIS HONOUR
HARDLY less picturesque than Haile Selassie himself, Ras Kassa is second only to the Emperor in influence and power. The lands over which he rules and which belong personally to him are more than twice as large as Wales.
When Italy tried to bribe him with the offer of “allied” kingship of Abyssinia if he joined Mussolini, his only answer was to send a cartridge to de Bono with the remark that there were more waiting for Mussolini if ever he came to the Tigre.
Nor did Ras Kassa give any outward sign of emotion when the Italians butchered his sons in the open market place because they failed to bring their father to heel.
This is the man who has now taken over command of the left wing of Haile Selassie’s army, the man who refused to sell his honour and who followed his Emperor into an exile which afforded him living accommodation of only two small and sparsely furnished rooms.
I have often compared them with the wealth and luxury of Ras Kassa’s home, with his personal domestic staff of 2,500 men and women, and wondered what be his dominant emotion when he meets the Itallans again – this time with the support of British arms and discipline on land, and the the eagles of the RAF in the air.
And so Haile Selassie continues his fighting journey into his own country with Ras Kassa as always – tested and tried and never found wanting – by his side.
MAINTAINING TRADITIONS
MANY other pictures of the “little man who is making history” take shape in my mind’s eye. Abyssinian warfare is so different from accepted standards of European conflict.
Haile Selassie, while he is glad to accept the benefit of the the experience gained by British officers in colonial wars, also maintains his own traditions.
Among them two are particularly interesting – the daily ritual of the Ark of the Covenant and the use of the red war tent of Menelik.
The Ark of the Covenant, the Abyssinians claim, is the original or the greater part of the original Ark of the Covenant mentioned in the Bible.
It invariably follows the Emperor into war and must never be far away. It is the sacred charge of Abyssinia’s most trusted officers who must guard it with their lives.
Few foreigners have ever seen the ark, but on one occasion I was privileged to see the reason for the tradition which demands its close association with the Emperor.
Carried in the ark is the most exquisite book I have ever seen. It is made of the finest leather tooled in gold and studded with magnificent precious stones.
The leaves are parchment, also limned in gold, and tell the story of the royal house from the day it came into existence the day Queen Sheba gave herself to King Solomon.
PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT
It contains gems from the storehouse of Abyssinia’s royal experiences during the centuries since those Biblical days, and during a war it is the Emperor’s bounden duty to read extracts from this book.
Intrinsically the book must be worth several hundred thousand pounds, but in fact it is one of the few really priceless things in existence today.
The Abyssinians believe that as long as the Ark of the Covenant preserves this book Ethiopia will always be a kingdom, and any invader will never subdue the country for more than a little while.
One of Haile Selassie’s suite, an enlightened young man educated in Europe and generally cynical about most things, told me once that the knowledge of this book and the ark always brought him back to his senses. He pointed out that the ark had never failed his country – even when Britain conquered Lord Napier.
Mussolini had scoffed at this tradition as superstitious balderdash, but all the same he had offered 1,000,000 lire for its capture during the war of 1935. All these years the sacred emblems had been most effectively hidden – but I wonder if Mussolini still sneers?
The red tent of Menelik is also important when an Abyssinian emperor takes the field. Though of comparatively recent origin, many legendary stories have grown up around its virtues. Most of them are obviously exaggerated, but it is a fact that even the enlightened Haile Selastic would not dream of going to war without it.
He uses it as his home and staff headquarters all through a campaign.
There is still much to be done – perhaps many hard knocks to be taken by the patriots – before the King of Kings rides his traditional snow-white horse down the central avenue of Addis Ababa to his palace of Gibhi just beyond the town.
Since before the days when he came to the throne, Haile Selassie has always centred his ambitions on the peaceful progress and development of his country.
Recently he told me again – enthusiastically – of what he hoped now to accomplish. The foundations of a new Ethiopia are already there, laifd by him lnog before the Italian conquest, when he first showed promise of developing into a modern Haroun al-Raschid, that prince of Baghdad who wandered alone by night among his own people to learn and better their conditions.
It had been Haile Selassie’s habit to tour his dominions looking out for likely lads who might be trained to serve his country in some special way.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
He had found scores of these youngsters. Some came from noble familles, but more than half were the sons of tribesmen, shepherds, petty tradesmen and others in humble circumstances.
At his own expense he sent these boys to be educated abroad and to bring back a cross-section of the best the world could offer.
They went to Europe, America and far away as as India and Japan. One lad I remember specially. He is now one of the Emperor’s most trusted officers and main Nubian slave – he is not yet thirty -the brilliance of his graduation from the Sorbonne had made him the hero of French legal lights before he was twenty.
That is the type of young man behind the Emper today. It augurs well for the happy birth of a new Ethiopia and her alliance with Britain.
Perhaps the cause nearest the Negus’s heart is that of the sick. It is his intention to ask Britain after the war to lend him the services of our best medical brains to make his is country healthy as an Afriran territory can be.
To this end his first act during his exile was to send his daughter the Princess Tsahai to learn nursing and hospital administration. No Society course of duty was hers. For four years she has learnt her job from the ground up in two of London’s leading hospitals.
Taahal was sent for by father recently to begin her new duties – for like the others of her family she will be right in the front line.
She had been impatiently awalting her call and with her younger sister Tenogne and her mother Empress Waizeru Manen – who has, incidentally, been able to save, and is now taking back, the Abyssinian crown jewels – will be by the Emperor’s side by tyhe time you read these lines.
Only one other fact needs be streased to mark the home-coming of the King of Kings – his emphasis during his first address to his people on arriving in Abyssinia on the covenant he hat made with Britain.
Its details are still secret, but it is a dicument that finally puts paid to Mussolini’s dream of empire
I break no confidence when I say that every concession which may help his country to develop has been earmarked by Haile Selassie personally for Britain. He is the first to admit that while the King of Kings may ride home to his heritage, that came heritage cannot survive this welter of conflict without the help of the only friends upon whom he knows he cann rely.
What shape will that friendship take?
I can see a real and workable all-red Cape to Cairo route. I can see many political and economic advantages being won by either side in perfect amity and understanding- not the least of which is the moral advantage of Abyssinia taking its place as the first fine example of British war reconstruction.
RIGHT OF DIRECT APPROACH
BU most distinctly I can seethe slight figure of Selassie in his white muslin shawl as he kneels before his little golden statue of St. George who is also his country’s patron saint. It will take more than a war to interfere with his custom of daily prayer.
And outside his palace I can see thousands who used to gather there daily-bishops, beggars, warriors, hewers of wood and drawers of water-for all have the right of direct approach to his home.
As he comes outside after his prayers the old cry will be heard again.
“Habet, Habet, Habet.”
A bishop will raise his hands in benediction in thansk for the peace which has come again with the overthrow of Italy in Africa.
I can see Haile Selassie bowing his acknowledgement – then smiling that slow smile no longer sad as it was throughout his exile. The King of Kings is home….