Atlanta Daily World

DESERTIONS FELT BY ITALY

Native Attitudes to Give Mussolini Much Trouble

HELPS ETHIOPIA

ADDIS ABABA (SNS) "I told you so!"

That, in short, is the feeling of Ethiopian military leaders now that the Italians are virtually on the brink of either openly declaring war or else marching into this country without going through the formality of announcing hostilities.

The reason for this feeling is the wholesale desertion of the Italian cause by thousands of natives of Italian Somaliland, many of them with arms and ammunition. The Italian officials are demanding that the natives give up their arms but this request is not meeting with a cheerful reply and often the desertions include both men and arms.

Still more encouraging are the reports that continue to come in to the effect that hundreds of Italians are still slipping out of Italy and into Austria in spite of the vigilance of the Italian guards along the frontier.

That Greece will come to Ethiopia's aid in the event that Great Britain comes out in the open has been indicated quite freely as many Greek aviators have already offered their service to Emperor Haile Selassie.

In the meantime, Italy is continuing to mass her ships closer and closer to the highly important Suez canal while Great Britain is making counter moves in the same direction.

Great Britain, it is believed, will experience much difficulty in controlling the activities of her colonials. It is reported, from highly reliable sources, that the natives in many of the English Colonies are quite sympathetic towards the Ethiopian cause and the failure of Great Britain to hold out for a square deal for Ethiopia will be the equivalent of the loss of that colony.

Emperor Haile Selassie gave another indication of the trouble Italian invaders might experience when he refused American and other newspaper correspondents permission to be at the front in the event of hostilities. He pointed out that the army would be moving so swiftly and in such small detachments that it would be practically impossible to keep up with it. Other disadvantages of trying to follow army movements were also cited.