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ABYSSINIAN PROTEST AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN AND ITALYSource: Advocate of Peace through Justice, Vol. 88, No. 9/10 (September-October, 1926), pp.533-534Published by: World Affairs InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20661378 .

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1926 WORLD PROBLEMS IN REVIEW 533

pose of playing the part of banker to bank

rupt industries. The promised improvement in trade is

evidently a long way off. The report of the subeommission of the Eeichstag on un

employment, which was considered to have taken an unduly optimistic view, predicted that normal conditions would in no case be reached before 1929. This committee indicated that, while the government could certainly not find work for the great army of 1,750,000 unemployed, it ought to be able to create jobs for about half a million. At present not more than 70,000 are em

ployed on the so-called "productive works," and it seems highly improbable, on

grounds of organization, that as many as half a million men can be absorbed for a

long time to eom.3. For the first stages it is proposed to adopt a system of shifts, an

experiment that has been tried locally with some success.

Program Likely to Lead to Disappointment

The critics of the government's scheme

predict that the policy of the so-called

"productive" works is likely to lead to a

great deal of disappointment, besides re

sulting in the withdrawal of capital from industry to be used in more expensive operations. It is asserted that the prom ised productivity in the case of railways, roads, canals, and land reclamation is quite problematical, and that there is no

prospect of the loans earning their interest for years, so that the interest will after all be a charge on the community. It is ob jected that the question of organizing these works has not been properly thought out, and that it is not possible to transfer large bodies of unemployed labor to distant works before the proper arrangements have been made for housing them.

It is pointed out that the Government's scheme gives no indication who is to con trol the expenditure of the money. The

experience in the past has been that the Reich and Federal States find the money for the communes to spend, and that the ideas of the burgomasters do not usually go beyond the building of public gardens and a stadium. Other critics are asking why, when there is so much German labor seeking employment, the government still permits 150,000 Polish and Czech agricul tural laborers to come into Germany for

the harvest and another 150,000 for other forms of labor.

ABYSSINIAN PROTEST AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN AND ITALY

THE Secretariat of the League of Ka

tions has made public a note of pro test, dated June 19, 1926, from Taffari

Makonnen, regent and heir to the throne of Abyssinia. The note, addressed to the States members of the League, says that the Abyssinian Government had recently received from the British and Italian gov ernments identical notes, stating that the two governments had made an agreement to support each other in obtaining for the British Government a concession to under take the conservancy of the waters of Lake Tsana, and for the Italian Government a concession to construct a railway through Abyssinia.

No Consultation with Abyssinia

In a covering letter the Begent of Abys sinia says:

Peace be with you. I have the honor to forward herewith copy of the correspondence communicated to us by the British and Ital ian governments, constituting an agreement concluded between them without our knowl

edge in regard to their interests in Abyssinia and copies of our replies. I also inclose a

protest which we are addressing to the States members of the League of Nations, making known that we cannot accept this agreement.

I beg that you will be good enough to com municate these documents to the States

members, in order that the question may be considered.

Given in the city of Addis Ababa, on the twelfth day of Senie, in the year of Grace 1918 (June 19, 1926).

Seal and signature, Taffari Makonnen, heir to the Throne of Abyssinia.

The note protests that the agreement was arrived at without consultation with Abys sinia, which was told on its entry into the League "that all nations were to be on a footing of equality within the League, and that their independence was to be univers ally respected, since the purpose of the League is to establish and maintain peace among men in accordance with the will of God. We were not told that certain mem

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534 ADVOCATE OF PEACE September-October

hers of the League might make a separate agreement to impose their views on an other member, even if the latter consid ered those views incompatible with its national interests."

It is recalled that one of the subjects covered by the agreement had been dis cussed between Great Britain and Abys sinia, and that no conclusion had yet been

reached, and Abyssinia could not help thinking that the nature of the agreement and the joint notification of its conclusion were an effort to "exert pressure on us in order to induce us to comply with their demands prematurely."

The note continues: The people of Abyssinia are anxious to do

right, and we have every intention of guiding them along the path of improvement and

progress; but throughout their history they have seldom met with foreigners who did not

desire to possess themselves of Abyssinian

territory and destroy their independence. With God's help and the courage of our sol

diers, we have always, come what might, stood proud and free upon our native moun

tains. For this reason prudence is needed

when we have to convince our people that

foreigners who wish to establish themselves

for economic reasons in our country or on the

frontiers between it and their possessions are

genuinely innocent of concealed political

aims, and we doubt whether agreements and

joint representations such as those now in

question are the best means of instilling that

conviction.

Undue Pressure Exerted on Abyssinia

Abyssinia, the note says, had only re

cently been introduced to modern civiliza tion and could not be expected to advance

rapidly, but it would "be able to secure

gradually but continually improvements which will make Abyssinia great in the fu ture as she has been throughout the past." The members of the League are asked whether they think it right that pressure should be exerted upon Abyssinia which

they themselves would never accept, and to decide whether the agreement is "com

patible with the independence of our coun

try, inasmuch as it includes the stipulation that part of our empire is to be allotted to the economic influence of a given power.

We cannot but realize that economic influ ence and political influence are very closely

bound up together, and it is our duty to

protest most strongly against an agree ment which in our views conflicts with the essential principles of the League of Na tions."

In reply to Ras Taffari's protest, the League Secretariat has asked the Abys sinian Government to state definitely what action it desires the Secretariat should take in the matter; whether, for instance, the question should be placed on the agenda of the next Council of the League, inasmuch as the Abyssinian communica tion to Sir Eric Drummond merely re

quests that the documents be communi cated to States members of the League in order that the question may be considered.

THE SOVIETS AND THE BRITISH STRIKE

ON" JUNE 11 the British Government

transmitted to the Soviet Commis sariat of Foreign Affairs a note of protest against the transfer of funds from Russia to the British workers engaged in the gen eral strike. The dispatch of this note and its publication in London caused a sensa tion, and the question was hotly debated in the House of Commons. As a result of the debate, the British Government issued a special Blue Book, containing the docu mentary evidence on which the Foreign Office based its protest.

Exchange of Notes Between London and Moscow

The British note read as follows : His Majesty's Government regrets that it

cannot maintain silence about the actions of the Soviet Government, especially in allow

ing the remittance to England of sums in tended to support the general strike. The

general strike was an illegal, unconstitu tional act, being a menace to the established order in Great Britain. In particular, the

activity of the Soviet Commissariat of Fin ance is not conducive to a friendly settle ment of the questions outstanding between the two States, which settlement the Soviet Government professes to desire.

On June 15 the Soviet Government handed the British Mission in Moscow the following reply :

The People's Gommissariat for Foreign Affairs presents its compliments to the Brit

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