Removing His Relatives!

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 20

Removing His Relatives!

Doctor Claims That Dusky Ruler Sought His Assistance in Removing, by Poison, a Number of Royal Kinsfolk . . . Appeal to League of Nations ■HE protection of. the League of Nations has been invoked by Dr. Alexander Garabedian, who alleges that he had been ordered to poison the members of the ruling family of Abyssinia. The order is alleged to have been given by Ras Tafari, coEmperor of Abyssinia, who was received with unusual pomp and deference at the Court of St. James and other European courts two years ago. Dr. Garabedian was formerly court physician to the ruling family of the African empire. He has accompanied his formal appeal to the League with 300 pages of documentary evidence in support of his claims. After serving on the staff of the Lausanne Hospital and being a medical missionary in tho Soviet Armenian Republic of Erlvan, Dr. Garabedian was director of the French hospital at Heracles. In November, 1922, he was called to Abyssinia and became personal physician to Ras Tafari and surgeon at the Menelik Hospital. Emperor Suggests Poison All went well until October, 1925. when Dr. Garabedian was Invited to tea with Ras Tafari, who. says- the doctor, made a request that the court physician should poison three members of the royal family. Dr. Garabedian explains that poisoning is a common custom in the country, and that it is generally regarded as being one of the principal duties of all physicians. The three proposed victims were:—■ The Empress Zaouditou (now dead), who traced her lineage directly to King Solomon. Woizero Sihiu. mother-in-law of Prince Ras Tafari.

Lidj Yasson, sister of the legitimate heir to the throne, named in King Menelik’s will as his successor. The heir was a cousin of Ras Tafari, and at the time of the poison proposal was kept in prison by Ras Tafari.

According to Dr. Garabedian, he not only refused to accede to the request of Ras Tafari but immediately wrote a strong letter of protest. A copy of the letter is included with

t.he documents submitted to the League; also a copy of a similar letter written after the second royal command to poison Ras Tafari’s relatives. Persecution Follows Then followed the steady “courting” of tile physician by Ras. Tafari, wSo paid him every courtesy before renewing in 1927 his proposal that his relatives be poisoned. On this second occasion the request concerned only the Empress Zaouditou and Woizero Sihin, the Prince’s mother-in-law. Tile doctor again refused, and sent a second letter of protest. He alleges that he was thereupon subjected to tho most bitter persecution, which lasted more than a year before he could leave the country. The persecution included police raids on his home, his surgery and his hospital. He was ordered to be expelled, but before the order was carried out he was exiled in the desert 500 miles from Addis Ababa, the capital. Finally he was kept in enforced seclusion, when his physical condition during exile became so serious as to menace his life. While in hospital Dr. Garabedian was refused permission to leave the country. As an Armenian, without

a national Government to back him, he had no passport, which was made the pretext for refusing to allow him to leave. Appeals to the International Red Cross and other bodies secured for him a passport: He was permitted to go when he had this document, and since August, 1925, has been living in Geneva and devoting himself to trying to obtain redress through the League of Nations.