18 JANUARY 1946, Page 12

BLACK AND WHITE IN ETHIOPIA

Sitt,—In a letter which appeared in your issue of January tith Mr. Merlen was concerned about two points arising from my recent article in your columns. He feared that it might be widely believed that "in all vital and important matters co-operation between our forces and the Ethiopians was marred by suspicion and mistrust and that relations were clouded by contempt and condescension on the one hand and injured feelings and resentment on the other." He contended that my statement that "the white element of the army of liberation, largely drawn from countries where the colour bar prevails, left a trail of injured feelings which almost obscured its gift of freedom" was grossly unjust.

There was a vast amount of valuable and valued co-operation between the British Force and the Ethiopian patriots. There were very many Europeans who, as Mr. Merlen says, were enabled by their wide experience of Africa to meet the Ethiopians with understanding and sympathy. If anything I wrote or left unwritten in the interest of brevity gave a contrary impression, I am grateful to Mr. Merlen's letter for this oppor- tunity to correct it. But the trouble was that many members of the liberating force, as a result of their up-bringing, had one conception of the status of Africans, whereas many Ethiopians, especially among those who today are helping to govern the country and are influencing its policy, had a very different conception, and were extremely sensitive about their position as independent and patriotic citizens of a sovereign state. Sometimes this difference led to the regrettable incidents to Which Mr. Merlen refers. More often it left a seed of bitterness in the Ethiopian mind without any intention or even realisation on the part of the sower.

The result of this and of the other factors mentioned in my article is that, in one's social oreafficial intercourse today with the majority of Ethiopians of the political type, one has first to break through a hedge- masked with the flowers of politeness but prickly with the thorns of injured feelings, rather than make a flying start on the open ground of mutual gratitude. What thus conditions intercourse must, I believe, equally influence the determination of future policy. For that reason, and in the interest of very necessary international friendship, I am anxious to find a means of cutting down the hedge. It was with that object, and not to vilify my brothers-in-arms, that I wrote my article. With that object, and also to persuade the reader that, whatever may have been the conditions in the period of turmoil described by Mr. Merlen, Ethiopia is no longer (to paraphrase his quotation) a place accursed, where intelligent men cannot live.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

The Hall Farm, Ditchingham. LAWRENCE ATHILL.