"Fit To Be Free"

"The Ethiopians have shown that they are fit to be free."

Thus last week Foreign Under Secretary Richard Kidston Law* explained to BBC listeners why the British Government had finally got round to restoring the independence of Ethiopia.

But the two-year pact which King of Kings Haile Selassie signed with the Brit ish Government bore little resemblance to Magna Charta. In return for $10,000,000 in cash, the Lion of Judah handed . the British a blank check. According to the agreement, British judges and assessors will sit on the benches of Ethiopian courts, the Ethiopian police force will be officered by Britons.

The Emperor furthermore agreed to give all possible aid to the British Army, to stage no private wars, to permit only the British and those to whom they give permission to fly over his country. The management of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway and the wireless station at Addis Ababa will be in the hands of the Commander in Chief of the British Army in Africa. The Army also received the right to use all Italian property in Ethiopia (assessed at $3 20,000,000-$360,000,000) without payment. To help guide the Negus' footsteps, British political advisers as well as a military mission will be appointed.

Parliament greeted the pact with solemn rejoicing. In the House of Lords Viscount Cecil of Chelwood called it an "extremely vivid contrast to the German Government's 'New Order.' " Only a few of the Lords had reservations about Ethiopia's new freedom. Though Anthony Eden had assured the House of Commons that Haile Selassie had promised to abolish slavery just as soon as possible, some of their Lordships wanted to know why the pact was signed before the emancipation was a fact.

The newly created Lord Wedgwood, potteries scion and for 35 years a stanchly liberal M.P., went off on another tack. "This overemphasized question of slavery! One can go into a sheik's tent in the [British-controlled] Jordan valley and have one's coffee served by a black slave. Don't let us be too virtuous about these things." What worried Lord Wedgwood was the fact Britain had not seized Italian property in Ethiopia outright.

One voice questioned whether Ethiopia had really been freed. Said Lord Davies carefully: "The agreement . . . strikes some as a hard bargain. ... So long as Abyssinia is bound down by some of the clauses, it cannot be described as free and independent."

But if Haile Selassie, busy receiving the congratulations of his people, had any such doubts, he kept them to himself. From Addis Ababa, where he has been waiting the British Government's pleasure since last May, he cabled his thanks to Winston Churchill for helping to restore his country's independence.

*Youngest son of onetime (1922-23) Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law.

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