File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎65v] (139/834)

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has been given the promise of Sayu formerly belonging to Jotei,
and Dejaz Wasseni. The Fitaurari acts as peacemaker and
temporizer, a well-meant but wholly futile role, the parties being
divided, not on questions of policy with any semblance of patriotic
concern, but of profit and personal interests oidy, and are there
fore fundamentally irreconcileable. Sooner or later, it is probable
that one party or the other will find itself in chains, an experience
which most Abyssinian Ministers enjoy sometime in the course
of their career, fgazu has already once been in chains, during
which time he was relieved of £70,000 which he had stolen
from public funds ; Haili Giorgis is in chains now. The position
may at any moment be reversed, and if so, the reversal would
probably be to the interest of Abyssinia as well as to that of the
Entente. The weakness of Ras Taffari’s position is that while,
as Heir to the Throne, he has assumed the position of Regent,
he has never been properly recognised as such by the Council of
Ministers, who claim that their constitution by Menelik gives
them a prior right to the administration of affairs.
There is still no definite news of the fate of Lij Yasu, of
whom nothing has been heard since the defeat of his forces at
Bessie. The very circumstantial account of his death, reported
by the man who claimed to have achieved it, has since been
somewhat discredited, and it may be that Lij Yasu, according to
his wont, avoided the dangers of battle and is still in hiding
somewhere among the Danakils. The report of the death of his
Commander-in-Chief, Ras Imer, proves unfounded, but he is a
prisoner. Lij lasus other general, Serabezu, is, however, dead.
Since the above went to press we hear that both the
Fitaurari and Ras Ivassa, who returned with him to Adis Abeba
related that Lij Yasu is alive and is thought to be in hiding in
(he Ada! country, never having been within six miles of°the
fight. Those, however, who have long experience of Abyssinia
aie b\ no means convinced of the truth of this statement and think
that the Government are keeping Lij Yasu’s death secret as they did
that of the Emperor Menelik. In addition to his own province of
balah, has hassa has been given Bessie and the Aussa territory, the
province of the late Ras Abata. The fact that it has been thought
necessary to have only about 1,000 men to guard the Wollo country
m f f lca jT ve ot the siail ghter, mutilation and devastation wrought
n the fehoan army I he Fitaurari himself says it is unlikely
that the country and people can recover for a hundred years
T Heate , < l, *™ssions are proceeding as to whether Queen
l!Uto1 ; °7 ; ,f Heuelik, shall he granted her request to go and
;Tf'J l,CT ilst <k y s «omlar. lias Taffari and the majority of
the Council are opposed to this, fearing the intrigues which would
result from her close association with the Negus Waldo Giorms
A pleasing light is thrown on Abyssinian governmental ways
^ic liouserf he'p t k i,i ( r i = iK hi,S remold
oust ol the Fitauran, still in chains, hut with the prospect
ot being presently appointed Minister for Foreign Affair*. y