'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎19r] (37/156)

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article was W. F. Deedes, then a young reporter on the staff of the "Morning Post"
in Addis Ababa, who has since become Editor in Chief of the "Daily Telegraph".
"From the tiny fort built on the hill which rises almost sheer behind the
British Legation in Addis Ababa, an anxious guard must have watched the
Imperial Road from Dessie yesterday. Doubtless it was from this post,
five hundred feet above the capital and commanding a vast panorama
of the northern approaches to the city, that the first glimpse of the
advancing Italian army was obtained. As the leading Italian transport'
column dipped into the last valley, some ten miles distant, its approach
must have at once been known in the British Legation; and two thousand
British and European subjects will have heard with relief that the
Italian advance on Addis Ababa had entered its last phase, and that
within a few hours they would be secure from far greater perils within
the capital. Those crowded into the Legation compound would be the
first to hear and see the Italians’ entry into Addis Ababa. The
British Legation is the first building of importance on the road
from Dessie, and at this moment the earliest Italian columns must
inevitably sweep towards or past its gates
Those Europeans who had been able to take refuge in this sanctuary
during the week-end - and no less, their respective Governments -
had reason to offer devout thanks to the foresight and skill of
the British Minister in taking what have proved to be such vital
precautions. It is said that the British Legation was ideally suited
for such defence, and for that reason, was selected by the Diplomatic
Corps as an emergency centre. That is only in part the truth. All
the Legations (except America’s) by reason of their situation in
the hills some miles from Addis Ababa itself are fairly placed for
purposes of defence. It is only because the British Minister has
from the first feared the dangers which have become so real in the
last few days, and had taken adequate and early precautions, that a
terrible situation has been averted, and several hundred white people,
including British and Americans, have been saved from massacre by
drunken Abyssinian bandits.
Many now sheltering in the cool oasis of the Legation compound will
recall the amusement, amounting almost to light contempt, with which
certain individuals in other Legations received the news that the
British Minister was about to instal armed British troops in the Legation.