London, Feb. 5.
Reliable reports reaching London show that the Italian domination of Ethiopia is still one of arms, and that Abyssinian chieftains are causing much harassment to the Italian forces by continued guerilla operations.
Stories put out by the Abyssinian Legation of the annihilation of thousands of Italian soldiers and colonists are considered wild, but, at the same time, the pictures from Rome of a solid, prosperous regime are considered too optimistic.
The true situation, judging by neutral reports, is that while the Italian forces are still in possession of all the Ethiopian provincial capitaly, the country is far from quiet politically, and, economically has yet to be an asset to Italy.
Guerilla bands are active in harassing Italian settlements, and their sorties on railways and highways are stated to make travel unsafe except in areas immediately surrounding cities with Italian garrisons, Italian Military View A few phases of the Ethiopian activities, affording a good idea of the general situation, are depicted in an Italian military journal, which by no means can be considered to be overpainting the picture.
At La Libela, 200 miles north of the capital, Addis Ababa, 400 Italian troops, it says, were recently completely surrounded by Ethiopians, while a relief column of 200 men met a similar fate at Bilbala Gorgis.
The Italians were only saved by large-scale aerial operations in which 113 machines from Diredawa dropped food and munitions to them, as well as bombing and machine-gunning the Ethiopians, who were finally routed.
The article says that Italian aircraft have many times been called upon to keep the roads clear, and reveals that, so far, more than 7,000 bombs have been unloaded against hostile Abyssinians.
Some of the recent fighting occurred only 40 miles from Addis Ababa, also near Lake Tana, and in the north-west.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.