The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-19

drew 400, 600 British troops
against them before they
finally surrendered,
A ERICA has way OF dealing
L n with Europeans who tread
among her jungles, who Chamber
rudely round her mountain tops
Streams the night before may
be raging floods the next morn
ing Seven days later, the same
streams may be mud puddles. And
the same may be said for water
holes. Capt. William A. Ander-
son, the only American ever to
gain commission in the British
army without first having to swear
allegiance, due to the discovery of
an old colonial law which absolved
such requirements, and writer of
several excellent hooks on East
Africa, told the author thai he
drank water from Just such mud
holes, because Of water shortage,
and discovered bodies of dead ma
tives in the slime beneath.
Malaria Wreaks its havoc among
Europeans, dySentery will dec
innate any force chat must march
and MuSsolinia's men are hav-
ing to march many hundreds of
miles through Abyssinia, in scorch-
ing heat.
And as they march they are sub
iect to attacks from intestinal
parasites, the likes and kinds of
which only Africa and her trop-
ical regions can breed. Pests such
as jiggers, BOTTLES, tse-tse flies,
ticks and the ordinary disease
carrying flies, will take their toll
among the campaigning soldiery.
nNE may escape these things in
" peace time-but not in war.
War is a time when a man is
thrown on his own resources and
he who has neither gumption,
Self-relianCe nor an ability to shift
for himself, is the one who goes
under, never to come up again.
A man may be Wounded-in the
leg, let us say 1t may prevent him
from walking AS he craWls, ants
will swarm over him and he will
die death of horrible agony. A
bullet is merciful-but the fiery
gnawing of flesh eating ants sends
a man Writhing, screaming, tor
tured into insanity and then to
oblivion.
An Indian soldier fell in one Of
the British African campaigns.
When the natives found him he
was dead-from starvation.
The natives laughed, called him
a stupid fellow A British officer,
aStounded, asked why. The ma
tives cast about them and re-
turned with worms, reptiles, ber-
rieS and said:
Here is food all around this
man-and yet he starved"
But foreign soldiers don't know
these things-and they don't live
on reptiles or Worms-and they
die-Of starvation, often in Africa.
There are snakes, deadly scor-
pionS whose bite can cause a man
to lose his leg-and there are
lepers in AbysSinia.
THESE are the armies of ma
L ture-and they are deadly.
Combine them with the depreSS-
ing effect of a climate which saps
the strength of the white man,
throw in a dash Of homeSickneSS-
and then perhaps one may under
stand very slightly how Africa can
demoralize a young European SOL
der.
Yet upon the natives. these things
have no effect. They are either
immune to them or Indifferent.
Great tales Of horrors have come
forth from both sides, to date.
The propaganda press agents have
been trying to outdo each other
on atrOcity StorieS-firSt the acid
of the Italians to burn the Ethi-
opians' feet; then the lions Sc
lassie is going to let loose on the
Italians and sundry other nom
Sensical stories.
Lions fear men, except when
hungry, Cornered or surprised with
young. And there isn't enough
acid in the whole world to cover
even a few of Ethiopia'S valleys,
let alone scatter hillmen and
tribesmen and put them out Of
action.
A RMORED tanks can't race
N over a country similar to our
own Colorado-yet far worse,
where there are no roads, but
there are tangled brush, forests
and no means of keeping me-
Chanical equipment in repair
Gas is good for trench warfare
and large bodies of men, but not
for native warriors scattered all
over the landscape in small, swift
ly-moving bands.
Italy has one of the best
equipped air corps in the world.
It's fighting planes are among the