The Secret War

19

The secret of the second Nile

For seven days they were kept in bed. Both Valerie and Christopher had second degree burns, and, for the first forty eight hours, suffered the same agony as if they where being grilled before a slow fire, but, as thousands similar cases had passed through the hands of the hospital staff since the opening of the campaign, they received expert treatment and were able to get some sleep without the assistance of morphia on the third day. Lovelace was burnt, too, although less badly, owing his previous acclimatization in the tropics, and he could have recovered earlier than the others had it not 'been for a small wound in the calf of his leg which gave considerable trouble because it had been inflicted by a poisoned Danakil spear.

In the next bed to him Christopher fretted badly, they must get on, he insisted whenever the nurses' backs were turned. Paxito Zirrif was already in Addis Ababa, and the first of May was the date fixed for the singing of the concession. They had been shot down in the Danakil country on April the 18th. It was now the, 2nd . . . the 23rd . . . the 24th. Unless they left at once there would be no time to plan any attempt against Zarrif which would have a reasonable chance of success. money was no object. They must charter or buy another plane; buy one for preference, in order that their movements might be free from the surveillance of a hired pilot.

Fortunately, they had their passports on them when they crashed in the desert, so, although they had lost their luggage, they had no difficulty in proving their identity, and Christopher was able to cable New York for a credit to be opened in his name at the Banco Italiano in Assab.

On the eighth day after their arrival they were both allowed to get up and went into the town together, where they purchased immediate necessities, but, with all his money, it proved impossible for Christopher to hire or buy another plane. There were hundreds of machines, yet every one of them was either the property of the Italian Air Force or required for some special purpose by the Government. They telegraphed to Jibuti and found that no planes were available there either; but in neutral French Somaliland Christopher was able to make dollars talk. He got in touch with the United States Consul and asked him to purchase an airworthy plane, regardless of its price. The Consul got busy and reported a four seater, equipped with a variable pitch propeller for sale at a sum that would have bought a Schneider Cup winner. Christopher bought it and arranged for it to be piloted over next day so that they might fly it to Addis Ababa, starting in the cool early hours of the following morning, but he had reckoned without their hosts.

Each day the debonair Lieutenant Count Dolomenchi had called at the hospital to inquire after them, leaving gifts of tropical flowers and fruit. He had also called upon Valerie and obtained permission to sit at her bedside each evening after his day's flying was done. When he had realised that she was Valerie Lorne, the famous American airwoman, his courtesies had turned to unbounded admiration. To have rescued her became a double honour, and he insisted that she should dine in his mess on her tenth night in Assab, as the doctor agreed that she should be well enough by then.

She protested that it was impossible, that she had no clothes and that her hair was in a hopeless mess, but he had brushed her objections aside with a gay laugh.

`The matter of your hair is easily settled. It takes all sorts to make an army, you know bricklayers, farmers, sorters, clerks, and even criminals there is a professional burglar in my own unit, an amusing fellow. I hall easily find you a hairdresser as for clothes you shall see!' and he departed impulsively to beat up the own.

When Christopher and Lovelace appeared to make known their plans, they found invitations for this gala waiting them too, and the latter insisted that it was quite out of the question to cut the party.

Christopher was furious at this fresh delay, but he agreed that the extra twenty four hours of enforced convalescence would make them all the fitter for their journey, and on the ninth day, when their new plane arrived, Dolomenchi was able to have it thoroughly Overhauled for them in his squadron's workshop.

Early next evening a surprisingly attractive selection of dresses arrived for Valerie, brought by a local dressmaker who made the necessary alterations to one of them on the spot.

An hour later a hairdresser, in the uniform of a corporal, presented himself and informed her that, as he had spent two years with Duraye in London, she might have every confidence in him.

Their generous host also provided the two men with fresh drill suits and sent a car to bring them all out to the air force mess at eight o'clock.

In her brief career as an airwoman Valerie had been the heroine of many ovations but never one like this. The Italian officers were all practical airmen who had a professional understanding of her records. Moreover it was months since many of them had even seen an attractive white girl of their own class. The band struck up as she entered but it was drowned in cheers and the cheers continued until she thought that they would never stop.

She was the only woman present. A distinguished General who had been asked to meet her sat on her left and the Commandant of the aerodrome on her right. All down the long tables there were rows of tanned boyish faces smiling an enthusiastic appreciation of her presence.

After dinner the health of the King of Italy was drunk, those of Il Duce, Signor Mussolini, the President of the United States, and King Edward VIII of England : then that of Valerie, as an inspiration to the airmen of all nations and their most honoured guest.

The glasses rang; the young men pounded on the tables and shouted plaudits as they drank the toast.

She stood up to reply and ended by saying that her only wish was to see them, with honour, safely home again in their beautiful Italy which all who had ever seen it must surely love.

When she sat down the General had to lend her his big handkerchief; for the thought was unbearable to her that many of these splendid boys might leave their bones in the burning deserts of North East Africa.

As they left the dinner table for the big ante room, Valerie was surrounded by a swarm of young men; all anxious for a few words with her. Those who could not get near because of the crush fastened on Christopher, who, as her fiancé, took on some of her reflected glory, while Lovelace was carried away into a corner by

the General.

For a little they talked of conditions in the interior of Abyssinia as Lovelace had given it out that he and his friends were on their way to join a Red Cross unit; a fiction which pleased the Italians as the more neutral whites there were behind the enemy lines the more chance their own wounded and prisoners had of

receiving decent treatment.

`Have you been stationed here long, sir?' Lovelace inquired in Italian.

`No,' the other replied quickly. `I am recently transferred from the southern front where I was serving under General Graziani.'

`You found it interesting, of course? Any soldier would.'

The Italian stroked his grey moustache and his brown eyes twinkled. `Naturally. I was stationed in Italian Somaliland for a number of years before the war, too, so I know the country and the people.'

`Did you find that the Somalis compare well with other native troops?'

`Yes, splendidly. The “Lions of Juba,” as they call themselves or Doubats as we term them, are magnificent fellows. Incurably lazy people but they're great fighters. A Doubat will walk fifty miles in a day and swim a couple of rivers infested with crocodiles if you offer him a chance of cutting an enemy's throat. They're handsome chaps and their women are really beautiful. Black, of course, but without any trace of the thick lips and the flattened nose of the negro. They'd shoot anyone who attempted to interfere with their women without a second thought and their wives follow them up to within a mile or two of the battle line. The Abyssinians are their hereditary enemies, so we've had more Somali volunteers offering to fight with us than we've known what to do with.'

Lovelace sipped the drink that stood beside him. `As almost the entire population of the Ogaden province are Somalis I suppose they'd prefer to see it under Italian rule than continue to be fleeced by the Negus's tax gatherers.'

`Naturally. Their own people further south, over the frontier, know we treat them fairly. They're Mohammedans, too, and they detest the Abyssinians' pseudo Christianity. For years past the people of the Ogaden have only been kept in subjection by a reign of terror which is maintained by the Negus's Amhara soldiery.'

`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.'

Lovelace smiled. 'I'll grant you, sir, that you've put up a good case; just the sort, in fact, that Britain has used time and again to justify her own annexations, but honestly, is the country worth it? These miles of waterless desert, dense jungle and barren rock can offer nothing to colonists.'

The General shook his head slowly as he lighted another cigarette. `At the moment no; but certain portions of them, in the hands of Italy, could be made to offer much. I give away no state secrets, but look at that map.'

Glancing over his shoulder Lovelace saw a big map of Ethiopia pinned up on the wall. `Yes?' he said.

`You see Italian Somaliland to the south of Ogaden?' the General pointed with a thick finger. `That is a good country. It is hot but healthy and it has no disease carrying insects; on the other hand, it has little water. Only certain sections of the river Juba flow all the year round and the Webi Shebeli, which is much longer, becomes a mere trickle during the great heats. Look at the Webi Shebeli again. It is nearly two thousand miles in length. If modern engineers could get to work upon it that river could be turned into another Nile and made to fertilize great tracts of territory; hut two thirds of it lie in Abyssinia.'

`You need the upper reaches before you can build your dams and power stations:"

'Exactly. The whole of the Ogaden must come under the Italian flag. It is not only a question of the people we can settle on the land once it becomes fertile, but towns, roads, villages will need to be built and ah de innumerable services necessary to a great modern community installed. At one stroke Italy will have solved her unemployment problem for two generations.' Lovelace nodded, 'I see. The campaign in the north from Eritrea is only a feint then?'

The General smiled. `National morale demanded tat we should avenge the catastrophe we suffered at Adowa as early in the war as possible. That naturally necessitated considerable concentrations of troops on the frontier of Eritrea.'

Lovelace noted the smile and returned it. `The opinion of the experts among the neutrals was that you had decided to engage and defeat the trained army of the Emperor there in order to break his personal power, but that strategically those battles in the north were only staged to exhaust the enemy while your southern army advanced through the comparatively easy country the Fafan Valley, gradually subdued Ogaden, captured Harar, and penetrated to the Jibuti Addis Ababa railway.'

The General's smile broadened into a grin. `The so called experts said many things. For example, that our first action would be a terrific bombing raid on the railway where it crossed the Awash river in order to smash the bridges and cut Addis off from the outside world. Could any suggestion be more foolish? It would cost us millions of lire to build those bridges again and we shall need the railway for our own use immediately we have conquered the country,' It was obvious to Lovelace that the Italian did not mean to answer the really interesting question as to whether the Higher Command intended to attempt pushing their northern flying columns through from Dessye to the capital or if they would gradually subdue the country from the south as had always been predicted. He returned to wider spheres.

'I think it's a pity, sir, your real intentions about the

Webi Shebeli are not more widely known. Few people could fail to sympathise with your wish to turn a great slice of Africa from useless desert into fruitful farmlands but, from what you tell me, the troops are having a very bad time of it in spite of their victories. D'you think they'll stay the course?'

`There is no doubt of that,' the General replied firmly. `The rains, which are due to start any day now, will mean further delay, of course, and conditions are appalling. Our soldiers fight, not only against a merciless enemy, who does not observe the decencies of war, but against heat stroke, fever, sunburn, dysentery, shortage of water and even wild animals which seem to be the allies of the Abyssinians; but our organization is sound and they have confidence in their leaders together with the inspiration of a great national ideal. There has never been any question of our failing to achieve complete and final victory.'

Christopher and several officers joined them at that moment so the talk became general. Orderlies carried round trays of Asti Spumanti and the aromatic, sparkling wine made them disinclined for further serious conversation. A young officer began to strum upon an upright piano; soon a group was gathered round him singing the old songs of Italy and the newest importations from the States.

More Asti Spumanti more singing; for a little the war and its horrors were forgotten. The thought of that anxious hour at sundown, when those who were off duty gathered on the aerodrome each evening to count the chickens as they came home to roost and tried to thrust out of their minds the terrible fate which had probably overtaken the missing, was submerged in gaiety.

At one o'clock Valerie declared that if she was to make an early start in a few hours' time, so as to avoid the heat, she must really get to bed.

As she left with Christopher and Lovelace she carried away with her the hearts of a dozen handsome young exiles who might never see Italy again, and the sounds a last, tremendous ovation followed them nearly back to the hospital.

Only Lieutenant Count Dolomenchi, for once bereft his usual gaiety, saw them off as the dawn was breaking. He told them that the great attack of the southern armies had just been launched against Sasa Baneh which lay a little above the fork of the all important Webiebeli. Four and a half hours later they arrived at last in Addis Ababa,