Ethiopia Today
)31a,—The importance of Ethiopia in the pattern of North-East African politics, little though it is realised, makes anything which improves our
relations with it very valuable. The converse is equally true. I therefore read with some uneasiness an article called St. George for Ethiopia. contributed to your Christmas number by Mr. Harry Franklin.
The picture it paints is so depressing, and so. much resembles a reflection of the ill-natiired and misinformed gossip which has been current about Ethiopia for years, that the author may fairly be asked to support his statements with more precise details,
Public executions," writes Mr. Franklin, " take place on a Saturday." The suggestion seems to be that they take place fairly often, and this in turn convoys an unfavourable impression of the Ethiopian Govern- ment's standaard of enlightenment. Will Mr. Franklin tell us on how many Saturda s (or other days) people have been publicly executed in Addis Ababa during, say, the last three years ?
A few months ago " a group of men convicted of an attempt on the Emperor's life were taken by lorry from gallows to gallows, one man being left dangling at each." So writes Mr. Franklin. When I left Addis Ababa last August the men had just been sentenced to death but the sentence had not been confirmed, and I hear from a usually reliable source that it has been commuted to one of imprisonment and that the men were not hanged. Will Mr. Franklin tell us the date on which their alleged execution took place ?
He refers to the failure of the Emperor's writ to run in the provinces, to little local wars, and to suspicion of slavery in the outer marches. Which provinces ? Wars when and where ? On what evidence is slavery suspected ? My own experience, which began early in the century and ended, except for a short visit this year, in l'.45, has left me with the impression that the disregard of central authority which I met with when I first travelled through the country has been replaced by very effective control throughout it ; while the abolition of slavery has been carried out with a success and thoroughness which I would not have believed possible thirty years ago. As for the " small wars," of which I have known since the Emperor's return from exile, they have, I believe, been .jimited to operations aimed at the suppression of resistance to central authority and have achieved their object.
The daring European who goes " whizzing past with his foot on the accelerator and his head well down " would be far safer in a more normal position. Unless Mr. Franklin can supply statistics to the contrary,. I. shall go on believing that the number of motorists who have been shot or even shot at in the streets of Addis Ababa since the Emperor's return is reassuringly small.
If his article is accurate I owe Mr. Franklin an apology for this letter. If it is not it will have misled some of your readers and hurt unnecessarily the feelings of our Ethiopian friends. We have not so many friends in North-East-Africa that we can afford to throw any away. I hope that Mr. Franklin will answer my questions and enlarge a little on the extent of his knowledge and experience of Ethiopia. We shall then be better able to decide what weight to attach to what he has
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