'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎16r] (31/156)

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supposed by the ill-informed that the Consul had been advised not to hurry himself.
Anyway, when the couple were a few days march to the north of the capital, word was
received that the Consul had been shot. This was just the sort of sensation that the
journalists had been waiting for. All sorts of stories circulated and were telegraphed
around the world. No two versions agreed; murdered by tribesmen, self-inflicted
injury, suicide, an accident. Eventually Muzzi, wounded but not dead, arrived in the
city accompanied by his wife. He was held incommunicado in the Italian Legation
while he slowly recovered. Vinci announced that the wounding was accidental; Muzzi's
rifle had gone off whilst he was cleaning it, and the bullet had entered his body..
What-ever the truth, the incident caused great anxiety to Sir Sidney and Lady Barton.
There was embarrassment too in as much as Marion Muzzi was the daughter of the British
Minister, whose Government was, to put it mildly, on the worst of terms with the
Government of the husband.
As the end of the rainy reason approached, tension mounted steadily. At the end of
September the great Coptic religious feast of "Maskal", which celebrates the end of
the rainy season, was made the occasion of a great military parade and show of pat
riotic fervour. In the presence of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Coptic "Abuna" or
Archbishop blessed the troops during a thunderstorm of record intensity. The
soldiery were soaked to the skin but seemed to be oblivious of any discomfort.
But the journalists and the newsreel photographers suffered severely. In fact, one
of them, an Englishman, subsequently caught pneumonia and died: we all went to his
funeral! A few days later, on October 2nd to be exact, we were told that general
mobilisation would be proclaimed on the morrow; the Italians had violated Ethiopian
territory. With a colleague from the Legation, I joined an immense crowd outside
the "Gebbi" or Palace. The great war drum of MeneliK was sounded to heighten the
drama of the occasion. The decree of mobilisation was read out by the Grand
Chamberlain. In their enthusiasm, the crowd rushed the Palace; press photographers
and journalists were sent flying. Later that morning it was announced that the
Italians had bombed the northern holy towns of Adigrat and Axum. The war had started
on time; the exodus of reluctant Italian Dodecanese Greeks towards Djibouti began to
gather momentum.
But, despite the great Italian superiority in the air and on the ground, their advance
from the north and the south was cautious and slow and, after a time, the capital
returned to normal. The Diplomatic Corps were present at the railway station when the
staff of the Italian Legation finally left by train for Djibouti. During November, the
✓
personnel of our Legation was strengthened when two Military Attaches of the Regular
Army suddenly arrived; Colonel Holt and Major Taylor. Already, with the arrival of
Major Charter and the reinforcement of the Legation Escort, my role of advising the