| Show Where Is the Glory 5 GERMANY resorted to unrestricted submarine submarine sub sub- AS marine warfare wh when n she got into a t tight bo box Mussolini poured poison gas on noncombatants noncombatants noncom noncom- ba ts in miserable Ethiopian villages Despite his vainglorious boasting sanctions sanction were becoming becoming becom becom- ing ingmore more menacing Wounds disease 1 ease and t the e blistering African sun were striking down his lighting men by regiments and brigades Tho The fi season eason on of the little rains was at hand band In Italy things were not g going ing so well A magnificent achievement by Marshal Badoglio was called for and for and so the forced march on Addis Ababa was pressed with redoubled speed Planned as the climax of eight months of cruel war of extermination was t the e capture of Haile Selassie's capital to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of Rome on I the fesl festival val of Pales the shepherd goddess I Delayed two weeks by bad roads made worse by by mud by inability to effect tactical concentrations concentrations concentrations concen concen- for the final crushing blow by the last desperate resistance of scattered and demoralized demoralized demoralized Ethiopian defenders the he Roman legions find rind Addis Ababa in flames as they reach their objective the emperor and hi his family departed the natives remaining there gone stark mad General Badoglio to honor all contingents who vho have blasted their way through such re resistance resistance re- re as these black men women and children could offer selects a composite regiment to lead the way to the kill to take over an empire almost worthless to white men to subjugate a people to whom he he pretended to the world his Romans would take culture and civilization What a victory Superbly organized and trained equipped with every modern device for mass murder constituted of the flower of Italian youth the armies of Mussolini went bravely to face a half- half starved unorganized miserably equipped half half- naked untrained barefoot horde horae of tribesmen They have given a good account of f themselves I a leaderless army carrying on Cn by instinct and craftiness coming down to them heni from savage ancestors All the natives that the King of Kings could muster into the semblance of an army trained by a Belgian military mission could have been no match for even one crack brigade of Italian troops The rest went forth forthwith forthwith forthwith with primitive weapons to be slaughtered by th thousands by modern mechanized armies dealing dealing deal deal- ing fig death wholesale from the ground and from the air Where is the for Italy What credit the Rom Roman n Regions can claim h has s no tinge of brilliant strategy of ot courageous arid and cunning leadership or high courage Th The Th l only time they were in real danger was when overconfidence or stupidity permitted them to fall into traps crafty blacks set for them Under tinder the stern discipline of wartime faced by y forbidding terrain blistered by a a. a blazing sun drenched by tropical rains or near-frozen near in the rugged highlands only the doggedness of the Italian soldiers excites the least admiration Vi Victory ory was won by carrying on ona ona ona a tradition going back to the Caesars protected by a curtain of fire Jire from their impotent enemy Italy has nothing glorious to record in the annals of ot its war of vengeance and tion fion tion against the tribesmen women and children of ancient Abyssinia It is a Pyrrhic victory for Mu Mussolini s lin must now face world opinion to plead justification and seek absolution At what cost his army unfurls the Italian flag over the ashes of Addis Ababa il ii duce cannot calculate In his dramatic flight from his flaming capi capi- tal tale al the piteous and conquered Lion of Judah s suffers ers no loss of the worlds world's high opinion His m moral ral and physical courage would not have been more fully revealed ha had l he remained to be a sacrifice sacrifice in in a forlorn last stand Living and free his voi voice e e. e may arouse all civilization to the ghastliness of its tolerance of jungle law in ln the society of nations If It conscience car can be awakened to rule over lust i it may not be too much to hope that human in intelligence nCe can devise a scheme to perpetuate itself through the he blood of of its fittest specimens instead of regimenting them hem for slaughter in itt insane conflict If it is writ written en in the destiny of ot this black mystic to be the forerunner of a nev new morality posterity will him victorious vic vic- ou in his hour of anguish and md defeat |
