The Coolidge examiner., 1936-11-20

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
UEW spots on earth are so bar
X rem, so inhospitable, as Assab,
in Eritrea, on the west coast
of the Red sea. With only
few palm trees, some low houses
and well set between the glaring
Red sea and a Waterless waste be-
yond, it seems hopeless place for
white men to choose as home.
Yet here the Italian colony of
Eritrea began its blistering eX-
istence. Neither treasures nor sheer
adventure, however, had anything
to do with its beginning. What is
now Eritrea began in 1870, when
the Italian Rubattino Steamship
company needed coaling station
in the Red sea and bought the Bay
of AsSab and its miserable oasis
from a petty local ruler, the sultan
of Raheita.
Until then Assab was only a small
harbor for the sambulls, or Arab
sailing craft, trading on the Red
sea. Even today it is little more.
Assab proved itself of slight use
as coaling depot; yet by its pur-
chase the Rubattino company was
launched into the business of buying
land. By 1879 a small Italian mill
tary force had landed in Assab and
hoiSted the Italian flag in this cor
ner of the world. Today, that red,
white and green banner flies over a
strip of Red sea coast which is 670
miles long. Inland from AsSab
across the desert rise the cool high
lands of Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
Torrid, barren and stricken
is the coast that stretches north
west from Assab, but as you ap-
proach the port of Massaua the to-
biography begins to change. Behind
MaSsaua the green highlands rise
in steep embankments, forming a
sort of gateway to the interior of
Africa.
1t was when Italy occupied Mas
saua in 1885 that Eritrea took def
mite shape; now the area in Eritrea
ruled by Italy stretches inland in
some places 220 miles or more to
the frontiers of Ethiopia and the An
glo-Egyptian Sudan.
In brief, within 20 years after the
Rubattino company bought Assab
as coaling station which was new
er developed, her colony here had
come to cover nearly $4,000 square
miles of Africa. On January l, 1890,
this new colony was christencd Fri
trea by the Italian government, in
remembrance of the Mare Fry
thraeun," as the old Romans called
the waters of this part of the world.
Massaua a Hot Place 70 Work.
Massaua, one of the hottest cities
in the world, with its environS, is
the home of $4,000 natives and a
few hundred Europeans. The white
men, mostly Italians, work during
the day in their offices under big
fans, with glasses of cool water on
their desks. In a damp and steamy
air they toll with a mean tempera-
ture for July of 94 degrees Fahren-
heit, 20 degrees hotter than the
average for the hottest month in
New York.
Service in the government and ad-
miniStration; routine work for ship
ping companies and banks; trade
in products Of the land the i'm
portation of goods-all these go
their routine way, uninterrupted by
the murderous climate.
Only by constant work can the
white man stand the climate and
forget the heat. No idle man could
endure it here. Except for a few
nurses in the hospital, no white
women live in Massaua in summer.
/ Then, the families of white employ
ees 60 to the high plain of Hama
sien, the real center Of Eritrea.
The harbor of Massaua is the only
place in Eritrea where large ships
can tie up at docks to discharge
their passengers and cargo. For
this reason it was here that the
landing of Italian troops and war
materials took place.
Population Is Much Mixed.
The native population is color
| full mixture. Here you see some
pure Ethiopian Hamites; also, al
ways near the coast, many Semitic
| Arabs who invaded the land partly
as conquerors, partly as traders, or
as members of that uncertain class
between the two. Where there are
Arabs in the East there is usually
the negro, too-from many parts of
Africa. Arabs have been slave trad
ers for centuries, especially along
| these coasts. In this district the
sea route seems to have been the
simplest; one finds here more So
mali negroes than Sudanese.
Recently new element has come
the Indian traders, common now
in nearly all places on the east
coast of Africa. 1t is they who, in
the main, bring cheap Japanese
wares into the retail trade of the
country.