The Conquest of Italian East Africa
The news that the Duke of Aosta had requested a safe con- duct for an Italiatr aircraft carrying an envoy to Diredawa caused a breaking-off of hostilities in the air and on the ground in Abyssinia. After the fall of Keren and Massawa in Eritrea, and the capture of Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia, the position of the Italians in East Africa became hopeless. From every direction British Imperial forces were advancing, and the retreat of the enemy from one British detachment merely led them towards another. Nothing was to be gained by continued resistance except that it detained British troops sorely needed in other fields of action ; and it was doubtless that consideration which has led the Duke of Aosta to hold out so long. But there was a growing urgency from the Italian point of view to end the fighting. The position of the Italian population was perilous in the extreme. Those who were in Addis Ababa were safe under British protection, but those who were on their way thither or isolated in various parts of the country were in danger from the Ethiopians'whom the Italians themselves had enrolled. It may well be that the Duke of Aosta, out of con- sideration for the Italian settlers, has decided to abandon the forlorn hope and ask for British protection. Soon the Emperor Haile Selassie will himself arrive at the capital and will be received ceremoniously by his chieftains. Though he will certainly require British forces to help the Abyssinian patriot troops to restore and maintain order, the collapse of Italian resistance should release powerful contingents to reinforce the armies of the Middle East.
