ARRESTED BY ITALIANS.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19889, 19 May 1936, Page 7

ARRESTED BY ITALIANS.

LOOTING IN ADDIS ABABA. SHUT IN BATCHES UF 40. L lilted Press Assn.— Elert Tel. Copyright. JIBUUTI, May 17. Reports from Addis Ababa slJte that the Italians lihnc made 1300 uvrests since their occupation of the city. '1 he majority of those arrested are alleged lo have taken part in Ihe looting of Hie city. Trials uy u military tribunal have been summary and tl*e evidence sketchy, and those condemned have been shot in batches of 40 or 30. A new cupitul crime is the possession of arms by Abyssinians.

Following u decree ordering that arms should he surrendered within three days, of which the majority of the population were not aware, a search arms began on May 9, and punishment for disobedience of the order was applied mercilessly. •

For instance, Herr Adel, an Austrian banker, returned home on the afternoon of May 9 to find that his servants had disappeared. He applied to the military governor, upon which he was told that they had been shot during the night. Some of them had been in his service for 20 years and, moreover, they delended the house during the looting. The Italians have also carried out deliberate revenge, including the murder by soldiers of the Abyssinian patriot and lawyer Ato Aderra, who opposed ihe Itulinns in a lawsuit in the early days of the war.