While some countries recognized the Italian conquest, Britain, France and the League of Nations refused formally to recognize it and consequently it remained illegitimate in international law. The King of Italy (Victor Emmanuel III) was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia and the Italians created an Italian empire in Africa (Italian East Africa) with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italian Somalia. In 1937 Mussolini boasted that, with his conquest of Ethiopia, "finally Adua was avenged". Some Ethiopians welcomed the Italians and collaborated with them in the government of the newly created "Impero italiano", such as Ras Seyoum Mengesha, Ras Ghetacciù Abaté and Ras Kebbedé Guebret. In 1937 the friendship of Seyoum Mengesha with the Italian Viceroy Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta enabled this Ras to play an influential role in securing the release of 3,000 Ethiopian POWs being held in Italian Somaliland.