Italy and Abyssinia The attempt on the life of Marshal
Graziani, the Viceroy of Ethiopia, is a reminder that the Italian subjugation of the country, costly as it continues to be, is no more than super- ficial. Attacks on the Italian forces of occupation are frequent, and Marshal Graziani is having recourse to penal measures no less savage than those which marked his adminis- tration of Libya. Over 30o natives were executed after the attack on him. The Italians hold little more than certain strips of territory through which their communications run and the country is obviously utterly unsafe for settlers. That does not mean that anything like a native government exists, or could be established. It is comparatively easy to destroy, and the Italians have done their work in that field well. When the League of Nations Assembly meets shortly to admit one independent African State, Egypt, it will inevitably have to take note, as an accomplished fact, of the disappearance of another, Abyssinia. Profoundly melan- choly as the events which led to that result have been, it is useless to base future policy on fictions, and the surprise expressed in Rome that the Emperor of Abyssinia has been asked if he desires to be represented at the Coronation -will be widely shared here. Sympathy with Abyssinia is as strong as ever, but it must not induce blindness to realities.
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