REINS LIGHTENED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 9

REINS LIGHTENED

RESULT OF TROUBLE

TOUR. MADE BY GRAZIAN,

Latent protest of Ethiopians against the rule of their conquerors has caused Italian officials to intensify border defence and internal police work, said an Associated Press message from Addis Ababa to the "Christian Science Monitor" recently.

General Rodolfo Graziani, the .conqueror of Somaliland, who soon is to be replaced by the Duke of Aosta as Viceroy of Ethiopia, recently made a tour of the East African territories under his jurisdiction. He gave attention to.two problems:—

1. Strengthening of garrisons along the British and French Somaliland frontiers, on the Gulf of Aden to the east; and placing adequate defence forces along the frontiers shared with Great Britain to the north, east, and west.

2. Police and military provisions to restrain tribes traditionally turbulent during the dry season; and armed insurance against possible infiltration cf revolt propaganda within Ethiopian boundaries. \ , The first problem arose directly from tension in the Mediterranean over the Spanish situation. .. Premier Mussolini desires "military' autarchy" in Italian East Africa. That means he wants the' territory to ;be able to defend itself in case he suddenly is pressed for troops to defend the-homeland. Viceroy Graziani ■ paid particular attention to military strength and discipline" in garrison points along the British and French Somaliland frontiers. INVASION EASY. Geography would aid an invasion of British or French troops in thess regions. It is understood the Viceroy ordered reinstatement of heavy garrisons, withdrawn shortly after tha collapse oi sanctions (during the Ethiopian campaign) and the signimj of an Anglo-Italian agreement concerning grazing privileges for native herders.

On the second score, General Graziani ordered more "iron" put into native police and regular army formations. A system of registry offices for birth, of children both, among natives and * Italian colonials was instituted. At present the system of enrolling natives for the army is semi-voluntary. Some tribesmen are told that if they enrol, take the oath of allegiance, and submit to Italian army discipline, their past insubordinations will be forgotten. Others-are attracted simply by the glamour of uniforms and wellburnished arms, regular food, and pay. Another generation, however, will find the regular, homeland conscript system v in • operation. Following his tour, General Graziani reported "all well" in a military sense. This he did following the traditional Ethiopian "mascal": ceremoni_native es fantasies wherein the-, advent of the dry season is welcomed. Ethiopian tradition calls'for war to be made in the direction taken by tha smoke of cerenfonial mascal fires. :

The natives were brought this year before the Italian; authorities in.villages and towns to-renew, allegiance to white masters across the sea..Many danced peaceably. 'An as yet officially unnumbered mass of them rebelled. They killed an officially-announced total of 41 white officers and 17 soldiers. The odd ratio indicated that the mutinies occurred in remote camps where^ small groups of white officers com* manded detachments of natives. General Graziarii—swift to stnka. back—tersely reported the rebels "wiped out." His officers believe that no matter which, way the mascal smoka blows, next year there will be no garrison mutinies. I