"Distressed" Negus

Families are disrupted for many reasons, but rarely do man and wife separate because of a father-in-law's politics. Ethiopians, however, are different, and last week from his self-exile in Jerusalem the thin-faced, kinky-haired son of Haile Selassie, Crown Prince Asfa Wassan, wrote to Patriarch Amba Yoannes XIX of the Coptic Church, in Cairo, petitioning this venerable prelate for a divorce from Princess Holata-Israel, daughter of his father's most powerful chieftain, Ras Seyoum, who capitulated to the Italian invaders during their campaign.

"As an Ethiopian patriot I do not wish to surrender myself to those who have robbed and colonized Ethiopia, nor have any associations with those who have submitted themselves to them," said Asfa Wassan.

But the domestic difficulties of his son were the least of cadaverous-faced Haile Selassie's troubles last week. In an effort to replenish his diminishing funds, the Negus was juggling several lawsuits in the air at once. Pleading that his client, the Emperor of Ethiopia was in a "distressing position," a Paris attorney attempted to convince the French High Court that Haile Selassie was the legal owner of 8,650 shares of Djibouti-Addis Ababa railroad stock worth some $1,500,000. Backing away from a decision that Premier Mussolini would consider hostile, the court decided it was incompetent to rule on the international law involved.

In London, a Chancery Justice heard the Negus' counsel stoutly assert: "I hope to satisfy your Lordship that the plaintiff is still the Emperor of Ethiopia. . . . He is so recognized by the British Government." But the court postponed decision on the case in which British Cable & Wireless Ltd. denies it owes the Emperor $50,000 for the maintenance in Ethiopia of a radio station for duplex radiotelegraphic service between Britain, Ethiopia, instead claims that the money now reverts to the King of Italy.

Faced with the loss of his remaining holdings, the Negus again appealed for public subscriptions. In London, the Abyssinia Association is collecting an "Emperor's Fund." Months ago he issued a call for a $10,000,000 "war chest," first purpose of which apparently was to provide for himself. When his request went unheeded, he wailed: "My appeal to the world for my distressed country has failed to bring in a response sufficient even for my personal needs."

However, little "personal need" is in evidence at the Ethiopian royal family's seven-acre estate, Fairfield, outside Bath, England. The 14-room Georgian house is jammed with furniture, expensive rugs hurriedly crated out of Ethiopia when the Negus and entourage fled. Behind the high walls the Emperor strides along beside his elderly cousin, Ras Kassa, on their morning walks. His favorite reading is, ironically, "diplomatic history," but most of his serious hours are occupied with the 90,000-word story of his life which he is laboriously turning out in Amharic. The 14-year-old Duke of Harrar has been enrolled at King's College, Taunton, and shy, reticent, 17-year-old Princess Sehai, who professes a liking for Shakespeare and "cool English poetry," has deserted Bath for a nurses' training course at London's Children's Hospital.

Last week indications were that the Crown Prince, who never got along with his father, would stay on in Jerusalem. But the hangers-on, wives and children of princes and widows of rases killed in the war, evidently saw their best meal ticket in Haile Selassie, prepared to dump them selves in the Negus' lap in England.

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