Here is a very short video clip of Haile Selassie at Geneva
with French commentary.
Scroll down for the English transcript.
It follows the translation of the full text transcript of Haile Selassie's Appeal to the League of
Nations, delivered at Geneva, Switzerland - June 30, 1936.
I, Haile Selassie
I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim
that justice which is due to my people, and the
assistance promised to it eight months ago, when
fifty nations asserted that aggression had been
committed in violation of international
treaties.
There is no precedent for a head of state
himself speaking in this Assembly. But there is
also no precedent for a people being victim of
such injustice, and being at present threatened
by abandonment to its aggressor. Also, there has
never before been an example by any government
proceeding to the systematic extermination of a
nation by barbarous means in violation of the
most solemn promises made by the nations of the
earth that there should not be used against
innocent human beings the terrible poison of
harmful gases. It is to defend a people
struggling for its age-old independence that the
head of the Ethiopian Empire has come to Geneva
to fulfill this supreme duty, after having
himself fought at the head of his armies.
I pray to Almighty God that He may spare nations
the terrible sufferings that have just been
inflicted on my people and of which the chiefs
who accompany me here have been the horrified
witnesses. It is my duty to inform the
governments assembled in Geneva, responsible as
they are for the lives of millions of men,
women, and children, of the deadly peril which
threatens them, by describing to them the fate
which has been suffered by Ethiopia.
It is not only
upon warriors that the Italian Government has
made war. It has above all attacked populations
far removed from hostilities, in order to
terrorize and exterminate them.
At the beginning, towards the end of 1935,
Italian aircraft hurled upon my armies bombs of
tear-gas. Their effects were but slight. The
soldiers learned to scatter, waiting until the
wind had rapidly dispersed the poisonous gases.
The Italian aircraft then resorted to mustard
gas. Barrels of liquid were hurled upon armed
groups. But this means also was not effective.
The liquid affected only a few soldiers and
barrels upon the ground were themselves a
warning to troops and to the population of the
danger.
It was at the time when the operations for the
encircling of Makalle [in northern Ethiopia]
were taking place that the Italian command,
fearing a rout, followed the procedure which it
is now my duty to denounce to the world. Special
sprayers were installed on board aircraft so
that they could vaporize, over vast areas of
territory, a fine, death-dealing rain. Groups of
nine, fifteen, eighteen aircraft followed one
another so that the fog issuing from them formed
a continuous sheet. It was thus that, as from
the end of January 1936, soldiers, women,
children, cattle, rivers, lakes and pastures
were drenched continually with this deadly rain.
In order to kill off systematically all living
creatures, in order to more surely to poison
waters and pastures, the Italian command made
its aircraft pass over and over again. That was
its chief method of warfare.
The very refinement of barbarism consisted in
carrying ravage and terror into the most densely
populated parts of the territory, the points
farthest removed from the scene of hostilities.
The object was to scatter fear and death over a
great part of the Ethiopian territory.
These fearful
tactics succeeded. Men and animals succumbed.
The deadly rain that fell from the aircraft made
all those whom it touched fly shrieking with
pain. All those who drank the poisoned water or
ate the infected food also succumbed in dreadful
suffering. In tens of thousands, the victims of
the Italian mustard gas fell. It is in order to
denounce to the civilized world the tortures
inflicted upon the Ethiopian people that I
resolved to come to Geneva.
None other than
myself and my brave companions in arms could
bring the League of Nations the undeniable
proof. The appeals of my delegates addressed to
the League of Nations had remained without any
answer; my delegates had not been witnesses.
That is why I decided to come myself to bear
witness against the crime perpetrated against my
people and give Europe a warning of the doom
that awaits it, if it should bow before the
accomplished fact.
Is it necessary to remind the Assembly of the
various stages of the Ethiopian drama? For 20
years past either as Heir Apparent, Regent of
the Empire, or as Emperor, I have never ceased
to use all my efforts to bring my country the
benefits of civilization, and in particular to
establish relations of good neighborliness with
adjacent powers. In particular I succeeded in
concluding with Italy the Treaty of Friendship
of 1928, which absolutely prohibited the resort,
under any pretext whatsoever, to force of arms,
substituting for force and pressure the
conciliation and arbitration on which civilized
nations have based international order.
In its report of October 5, 1935, the Committee
of 13 [of the League] recognized my effort and
the results that I had achieved. The governments
thought that the entry of Ethiopia into the
League, whilst giving that country a new
guarantee for the maintenance of her territorial
integrity and independence, would help her to
reach a higher level of civilization. It does
not seem that in Ethiopia today there is more
disorder and insecurity than in 1923. On the
contrary, the country is more united and the
central power is better obeyed.
I should have procured still greater results for
my people if obstacles of every kind had not
been put in the way by the Italian government,
the government which stirred up revolt and armed
the rebels. Indeed the Rome government, as it
has today openly proclaimed, has never ceased to
prepare for the conquest of Ethiopia. The
treaties of friendship it signed with me were
not sincere; their only object was to hide its
real intention from me. The Italian government
asserts that for 14 years it has been preparing
for its present conquest. It therefore
recognizes today that when it supported the
admission of Ethiopia to the League of Nations
in 1923, when it concluded the Treaty of
Friendship in 1928, when it signed the Pact of
Paris outlawing war, it was deceiving the whole
world.
The Ethiopian
government was, in these solemn treaties, given
additional guarantees of security which would
enable it to achieve further progress along the
specific path of reform on which it had set its
feet, and to which it was devoting all its
strength and all its heart.
The Walwal incident, in December, 1934, came as
a thunderbolt to me. The Italian provocation was
obvious and I did not hesitate to appeal to the
League of Nations. I invoked the provisions of
the treaty of 1928, the principles of the
Covenant [of the League]; I urged the procedure
of conciliation and arbitration.
Unhappily for
Ethiopia, this was the time when a certain
government considered that the European
situation made it imperative at all costs to
obtain the friendship of Italy. The price paid
was the abandonment of Ethiopian independence to
the greed of the Italian government. This secret
agreement [of January 1935, between Britain and
Italy, recognizing Italian influence over
Ethiopia], contrary to the obligations of the
Covenant, has exerted a great influence over the
course of events. Ethiopia and the whole world
have suffered and are still suffering today its
disastrous consequences.
This first violation of the Covenant was
followed by many others. Feeling itself
encouraged in its policy against Ethiopia, the
Rome government feverishly made war
preparations, thinking that the concerted
pressure which was beginning to be exerted on
the Ethiopian government, might perhaps not
overcome the resistance of my people to Italian
domination.
The time had to
come, thus all sorts of difficulties were placed
in the way with a view to breaking up the
procedure of conciliation and arbitration. All
kinds of obstacles were placed in the way of
that procedure. Governments tried to prevent the
Ethiopian government from finding arbitrators
amongst their nationals. When once the arbitral
tribunal a was set up, pressure was exercised so
that an award favorable to Italy should be
given. All this was in vain. The arbitrators,
two of whom were Italian officials, were forced
to recognize unanimously that in the Walwal
incident, as in the subsequent incidents, no
international responsibility was to be
attributed to Ethiopia.
Following on this award, the Ethiopian
government sincerely thought that an era of
friendly relations might be opened with Italy. I
loyally offered my hand to the Roman government.
The Assembly was
informed by the report of the Committee of
Thirteen, dated October 5, 1935, of the details
of the events which occurred after the month of
December 1934 and up to October 3, 1935. It will
be sufficient if I quote a few of the
conclusions of that report, Numbers 24, 25, and
26:
The Italian
memorandum (containing the complaints made by
Italy) was laid on the Council table on
September 4, 1935, whereas Ethiopia's first
appeal to the Council had been made on December
14, 1934. In the interval between these two
dates, the Italian government opposed the
consideration of the question by the Council on
the ground that the only appropriate procedure
was that provided for in the Italo-Ethiopian
Treaty of 1928. Throughout the whole of that
period, moreover, the dispatch of Italian troops
to East Africa was proceeding. These shipments
of troops were represented to the Council by the
Italian government as necessary for the defense
of its colonies menaced by Ethiopia's
preparations. Ethiopia, on the contrary, drew
attention to the official pronouncements made in
Italy which, in its opinion, left no doubt "as
to the hostile intentions of the Italian
government."
From the outset of the dispute, the Ethiopian
government has sought a settlement by peaceful
means. It has appealed to the procedures of the
Covenant. The Italian government desiring to
keep strictly to the procedures of the Italo-Ethiopian
Treaty of 1928, the Ethiopian government
assented. It invariably stated that it would
faithfully carry out the arbitral award even if
the decision went against it. It agreed that the
question of the ownership of Walwal should not
be dealt with by the arbitrators, because the
Italian government would not agree to such a
course. It asked the Council to dispatch neutral
observers and offered to lend itself to any
inquiries upon which the Council might decide.
Once the Walwal dispute had been settled by
arbitration, however, the Italian government
submitted its detailed memorandum to the Council
in support of its claim to liberty of action. It
asserted that a case like that of Ethiopia
cannot be settled by the means provided by the
Covenant. It stated that, "since this question
affects vital interest and is of primary
importance to Italian security and
civilization," it "would be failing in its most
elementary duty, did it not cease once and for
all to place any confidence in Ethiopia,
reserving full liberty to adopt any measures
that may become necessary to ensure the safety
of its colonies and to safeguard its own
interests."
Those are the terms of the report of the
Committee of Thirteen. The Council and the
Assembly unanimously adopted the conclusion that
the Italian Government had violated the Covenant
and was in a state of aggression.
I did not hesitate
to declare that I did not wish for war, that it
was imposed upon me, and I should struggle
solely for the independence and integrity of my
people, and that in that struggle I was the
defender of the cause of all small states
exposed to the greed of a powerful neighbor.
In October 1935, the fifty-two nations who are
listening to me today gave me an assurance that
the aggressor would not triumph, that the
resources of the Covenant would be employed in
order to ensure the reign of right and the
failure of violence. I ask the fifty-two nations
not to forget today the policy upon which they
embarked eight months ago, and on faith of which
I directed the resistance of my people against
the aggressor whom they had denounced to the
world. Despite the inferiority of my weapons,
the complete lack of aircraft, artillery,
munitions, hospital services, my confidence in
the League was absolute. I thought it to be
impossible that fifty-two nations, including the
most powerful in the world, should be
successfully opposed by a single aggressor.
Counting on the faith due to treaties, I had
made no preparation for war, and that is the
case with certain small countries in Europe.
When the danger became more urgent, being aware
of my responsibilities towards my people, during
the first six months of 1935 I tried to acquire
armaments. Many governments proclaimed an
embargo to prevent my doing so, whereas the
Italian government through the Suez Canal, was
given all facilities for transporting without
cessation and without protest, troops, arms, and
munitions.
On October 3, 1935, the Italian troops invaded
my territory. A few hours later only I decreed
general mobilization. In my desire to maintain
peace I had, following the example of a great
country in Europe on the eve of the Great War,
caused my troops to withdraw thirty kilometers
so as to remove any pretext of provocation.
War then took place in the atrocious conditions
which I have laid before the Assembly. In that
unequal struggle between a government commanding
more than forty-two million inhabitants, having
at its disposal financial, industrial and
technical means which enabled it to create
unlimited quantities of the most death-dealing
weapons, and, on the other hand, a small people
of twelve million inhabitants, without arms,
without resources having on its side only the
justice of its own cause and the promise of the
League of Nations, what real assistance was
given to Ethiopia by the fifty-two nations who
had declared the Rome government guilty of a
breach of the Covenant and had undertaken to
prevent the triumph of the aggressor?
Has each of the
states' members, as it was its duty to do in
virtue of its signature appended to Article 15
of the Covenant, considered the aggressor as
having committed an act of war personally
directed against itself? I had placed all my
hopes in the execution of these undertakings. My
confidence had been confirmed by the repeated
declarations made in the Council to the effect
that aggression must not be rewarded, and that
force would end by being compelled to bow before
right.
In December 1935, the Council made it quite
clear that its feelings were in harmony with
those of hundreds of millions of people who, in
all parts of the world, had protested against
the proposal to dismember Ethiopia. It was
constantly repeated that there was not merely a
conflict between the Italian government and the
League of Nations, and that is why I personally
refused all proposals to my personal advantage
made to me by the Italian government, if only I
would betray my people and the Covenant of the
League of Nations. I was defending the cause of
all small peoples who are threatened with
aggression.
What have become of the promises made to me as
long ago as October 1935? I noted with grief,
but without surprise that three powers
considered their undertakings under the Covenant
as absolutely of no value. Their connections
with Italy impelled them to refuse to take any
measures whatsoever in order to stop Italian
aggression. On the contrary, it was a profound
disappointment to me to learn the attitude of a
certain government which, whilst ever protesting
its scrupulous attachment to the Covenant, has
tirelessly used all its efforts to prevent its
observance. As soon as any measure which was
likely to be rapidly effective was proposed,
various pretexts were devised in order to
postpone even consideration of the measure. Did
the secret agreements of January 1935 provide
for this tireless obstruction?
The Ethiopian government never expected other
governments to shed their soldiers' blood to
defend the Covenant when their own immediately
personal interests were not at stake. Ethiopian
warriors asked only for means to defend
themselves. On many occasions I have asked for
financial assistance for the purchase of arms.
That assistance has been constantly refused me.
What, then, in practice, is the meaning of
Article 16 of the Covenant and of collective
security?
The Ethiopian government's use of the railway
from Djibouti to Addis Ababa was in practice a
hazardous regards transport of arms intended for
the Ethiopian forces. At the present moment this
is the chief, if not the only means of supply of
the Italian armies of occupation. The rules of
neutrality should have prohibited transports
intended for Italian forces, but there is not
even neutrality since Article 16 lays upon every
state member of the League the duty not to
remain a neutral but to come to the aid not of
the aggressor but of the victim of aggression.
Has the Covenant been respected? Is it today
being respected?
Finally a statement has just been made in their
parliaments by the governments of certain
powers, amongst them the most influential
members of the League of Nations, that since the
aggressor has succeeded in occupying a large
part of Ethiopian territory they propose not to
continue the application of any economic and
financial measures that may have been decided
upon against the Italian government. These are
the circumstances in which at the request of the
Argentine government, the Assembly of the League
of Nations meets to consider the situation
created by Italian aggression. I assert that the
problem submitted to the Assembly today is a
much wider one. It is not merely a question of
the settlement of Italian aggression.
It is collective security. It is the very
existence of the League of Nations. It is the
confidence that each state has to place in
international treaties. It is the value of
promises made to small states that their
integrity and their independence shall be
respected and ensured. It is the principle of
the equality of states on the one hand, or
otherwise the obligation laid upon small powers
to accept the bonds of vassalship. In a word, it
is international morality that is at stake. Have
the signatures appended to a treaty value only
in so far as the signatory powers have a
personal, direct and immediate interest
involved?
No subtlety can change the problem or shift the
grounds of the discussion. It is in all
sincerity that I submit these considerations to
the Assembly. At a time when my people are
threatened with extermination, when the support
of the League may ward off the final blow, may I
be allowed to speak with complete frankness,
without reticence, in all directness such as is
demanded by the rule of equality as between all
states members of the League?
Apart from the Kingdom of the Lord there is not
on this earth any nation that is superior to any
other. Should it happen that a strong government
finds it may with impunity destroy a weak
people, then the hour strikes for that weak
people to appeal to the League of Nations to
give its judgment in all freedom. God and
history will remember your judgment.
I have heard it asserted that the inadequate
sanctions already applied have not achieved
their object. At no time, and under no
circumstances could sanctions that were
intentionally inadequate, intentionally badly
applied, stop an aggressor. This is not a case
of the impossibility of stopping an aggressor
but of the refusal to stop an aggressor. When
Ethiopia requested and requests that she should
be given financial assistance, was that a
measure which it was impossible to apply whereas
financial assistance of the League has been
granted, even in times of peace, to two
countries and exactly to two countries who have
refused to apply sanctions against the
aggressor?
Faced by numerous violations by the Italian
government of all international treaties that
prohibit resort to arms, and the use of
barbarous methods of warfare, it is my painful
duty to note that the initiative has today been
taken with a view to raising sanctions. Does
this initiative not mean in practice the
abandonment of Ethiopia to the aggressor? On the
very eve of the day when I was about to attempt
a supreme effort in the defense of my people
before this Assembly does not this initiative
deprive Ethiopia of one of her last chances to
succeed in obtaining the support and guarantee
of states members? Is that the guidance the
League of Nations and each of the states members
are entitled to expect from the great powers
when they assert their right and their duty to
guide the action of the League?
Placed by the
aggressor face to face with the accomplished
fact, are states going to set up the terrible
precedent of bowing before force?
Your Assembly will doubtless have laid before it
proposals for the reform of the Covenant and for
rendering more effective the guarantee of
collective security. Is it the Covenant that
needs reform? What undertakings can have any
value if the will to keep them is lacking? Is it
international morality which is at stake and not
the Articles of the Covenant?
On behalf of the
Ethiopian people, a member of the League of
Nations, I request the Assembly to take all
measures proper to ensure respect for the
Covenant. I renew my protest against the
violations of treaties of which the Ethiopian
people has been the victim. I declare in the
face of the whole world that the Emperor, the
Government and the people of Ethiopia will not
bow before force; that they maintain their
claims that they will use all means in their
power to ensure the triumph of right and the
respect of the Covenant.
I ask the fifty-two nations, who have given the
Ethiopian people a promise to help them in their
resistance to the aggressor, what are they
willing to do for Ethiopia? And the great powers
who have promised the guarantee of collective
security to small states on whom weighs the
threat that they may one day suffer the fate of
Ethiopia, I ask what measures do you intend to
take?
Representatives of the world, I have come to
Geneva to discharge in your midst the most
painful of the duties of the head of a state.
What reply shall I have to take back to my
people?
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 BC -
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
is more:
