"Words of God"

Surprisingly last week the Ethiopian censor with His Majesty at Dessye passed a dispatch reading, "If Il Duce wished to instill fear into the hearts of these ignorant natives he has certainly succeeded."

At Addis Ababa the receipt by a U. S. cameraman of a jocular cablegram from his home office, "Presume Addis next; suggest you pick out shelter now," leaked out to cause virtual panic as thousands of natives grabbed their rifles and bolted pell-mell out of the Capital, thinking it was about to be bombed.

Nearest Italian bombs of the week thundered in the countryside a good 100 miles from Addis Ababa, but native morale was at lowest ebb thus far. The Most Reverend Kyrillos, Abuna of Ethiopia's Coptic Christian Church, hailed the peace deal proposed by Britain & France as "Words of God." To the Abuna the great feature of The Deal was one scarcely noticed out-side Ethiopia but showing the grasp of native mentality applied by Mr. Maurice Drummond Peterson, technical expert of Britain's Foreign Office, in concocting The Deal. It provides that Italy must evacuate, surrender and restore to Ethiopia her Holy City of Aksum. "Praise be to God!" cried the Abuna. "Let the Holy Spirit descend upon these conditions. These are Words of God!"

Less ecclesiastic Ethiopian leaders in Addis Ababa shouted that any acceptance of The Deal would cost the Emperor his

Throne, and at Dessye meanwhile His Majesty was the guest of Nebraska, California and Ohio Seventh Day Adventists who are firmly resolved that Ethiopia shall not yield. With their little organ pealing Rock of Ages, followed by What A Friend We Have In Jesus, the Emperor displayed unwavering courage, flayed The Deal to correspondents, and assented when his Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Everett Andrew Colson, a native of Warren, Me., advised from Addis Ababa that Ethiopia should not take upon herself the onus of rejecting the Franco-British proposal but should pass the buck to the League of Nations.

Military operations came to a virtual standstill and Addis Ababa buzzed with rumors that the local British and French diplomats were trying to arrange with Yankee Colson some sort of "Christmas Truce."

The leading U. S. Red Cross physician in Ethiopia, Dr. Robert William Hockman, who has made a persistent hobby of investigating dud Italian air bombs, buried a 970-pounder with the remark, "It's got my name on it, for after the war." Investigating what he took to be another dud at Daggah Bur last week, he was blown to atoms.

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