Dennis Wheatley - The Secret War

`How's the war going down there?'

`As well as can be expected,' replied the General non committally. 'Our progress on all fronts appears spasmodic because each time we gain a victory roads must be built through these trackless wastes to carry our supplies, before we can launch a new attack and clear a further section of the country. In the south we are opposed to Ras Nasibu, the Governor of Harar, who is by far the finest soldier among the Abyssinian Commanders. Ras Seyoum, in the Tigre, took a little handling because he is the real, lion hearted type of Chief we have always heard about; a brave savage, shrewd, courageous and possessing real initiative, but the others are a joke, little better than stupid children. They get drunk each night and fill their bellies with raw meat while they boast of what their fathers did in the way of killing forty years ago.'

Lovelace nodded. `It seems that your Intelligence Service keeps you pretty well informed.'

`Why certainly,' the General laughed. 'As ninety nine out of every hundred Abyssinians would shoot their own brothers in the back for a handful of thalers they'll part with any information our agents require for the price of a drink. Besides, all the subject races, who form the bulk of the population, detest the Amhara and regard us as liberators. We know everything that goes on and every trench in their “Hindenburg line” is already marked out on our maps.'

D'you mean the line Ras Nasibu is holding?'

'Yes. It is about a hundred and thirty miles south of Harar and he is banking on it holding us up. It won't, because it's only an absurd travesty of its namesake; sand trenches connecting a chain of ancient mud forts, instead of reinforced concrete strongpoint’s linked by fifty yard belts of barbed wire. General Graziani's troops are already concentrated in front of Sasa Baneh; he is certain to break through there within the next week or so, But that, please, is not for the Press.'

`Of course not,' Lovelace agreed quickly, 'and however brave Ras Nasibu's men may be they couldn't possibly stand up against your massed machine guns or concentrated bombardment by artillery using high explosives. Besides, you have unchallenged supremacy in the air and must be able to break up their masses anywhere, quite easily, before they get to the point of charging.'

`That is true,' the General concurred, `but the mastery of the air does not give us the same advantage that it would in Europe. Great tracts of Abyssinia are covered by dense jungle. The enemy uses them in which to concentrate his forces and our airmen are often completely baffled. During the day time, too, these blacks have the sense to go to earth; the whole front appears desolate and there's not a figure to be seen for a hundred miles along it. Then at night, when the planes are unab1e to help us, they come out by the thousand; stripped of their white shaman, stark naked and greased all over their black bodies. They sneak up to our pickets and massacre them; often before an alarm can even be sounded.'

`That sort of thing must prey on the nerves of your men pretty badly.'

`It does; almost as much as the attacks of the hyenas.' `The hyenas,' Lovelace repeated with surprise. `But surely they don't molest human beings.'

The General laughed. `Evidently you have not met the Abyssinian variety. Like the human inhabitants of his miserable country, they far surpass in ferocity the formal members of their species.'

`They prowl at nights, of course. I've seen them even n the streets of Addis Ababa, but I didn't think .. ,'

`Oh, there, offal would keep down their ravenous hunger, perhaps, but outside the towns packs of them have to be driven off by rifle fire at times. All our wounded that we fail to get in before nightfall are devoured by hyenas, and often they get the better of little bands of stragglers too. They're much more dangerous than the lions, with which the country swarms, or even the tribes of baboons which set upon anyone who crosses their path.'

Lovelace made a grimace. `Knowing so much fine Italian manhood would have to be sacrificed in such horrible ways it's difficult to understand how Signor Mussolini ever brought himself to the point of engaging in this war.'

`For you, perhaps but not for us.' The General leant forward earnestly. `You are an Englishman of some standing; it is pleasant therefore to have the opportunity of putting the real facts before you. Listen, I will tell you why Italy had no alternative but to advance into Abyssinia. It is this: we did our share in the Great War but got practically nothing out of it. If Mussolini had been present when the Treaty of Versailles was drawn up things might have been different but he was not. We received no colonies where our population might expand or from which we could secure vital raw materials. Afterwards, for a year or two, everything was anarchy; then Mussolini accomplished the March on Rome and proceeded to clean up the country. He was faced with Bolshevism, graft, indifference, and every kind of roguery. I tell you this I who am an Italian.' The General thumped his chest and Lovelace nodded.

`Good ! For ten years Mussolini performed the most incredible labours; then he sat back to take stock of the situation. Order has been brought out of chaos; the great bulk of the people are the better for his reforms and, after years of doubt, now have unquestioning faith in his leadership. He has infused a new spirit into our nation and placed it once more among the leading powers but, in spite of all our efforts, he is faced with the cold, hard fact that our country simply cannot support our population. France has 60,000,000 people and Italy 40,000,000, yet France has more than ten times the area of cultivable land that we possess. Unless all that Mussolini had done was to go for nothing, he had to find some outlet for our surplus millions.. Before the war our people could emigrate to the United States, to all parts of your British Empire, and to most other countries, freely. Since the war all that has been altered. Unemployment problems have forced nearly every nation to restrict or prohibit the immigration of aliens in order to protect such jobs as are going for their own nationals. Where could Mussolini turn without coming into conflict with the other great powers. We had two pieces of seaboard in Africa, both abutting on Abyssinia, with frontiers which have never been clearly defined. If he could advance those frontiers his problem was solved.

Italy had already claimed and disputed that territory the war of 1896. The Abyssinians only conquered themselves in living memory and their title to it is extremely dubious.

`We made a treaty of friendship with them and for years it was our hope that we might assist them in the development of their country. Haile Selassie's authority never existed, in fact, outside the comparatively all area of Abyssinia proper and in a few of the principal towns. We would have made him and his dynasty paramount throughout the whole Ethiopian Empire. All we asked in return was that he should allow us free immigration and the control of the police in order that we might protect our settlers. Surely, that we sponsored Abyssinia's entrance to the League in the face of Britain's opposition is proof of our honourable intentions. Yet this ill advised little man has never treated our overtures with anything but prevarication ill concealed contempt. Worse, he has not even honoured his own agreement with us. Swiss, Belgians, Swedes are selected for the advisory posts which were promised to Italians. No special facilities which were promised for the development of trade have been given.

Our people are singled out for insult and outrage whenever they venture into Abyssinian territory. The position has long been intolerable.

`In addition, the lack of law and order in the country is an open scandal and the native population would fare better under our protection than they do at present. We seek no war with any other European country. We are only proposing to do that which Britain and France have done on innumerable occasions in the past.'