124.842/149
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray)
During a call from the British Ambassador this afternoon I conveyed to him, at the Secretary’s suggestion, a full account of the most recent developments respecting the use of the legation radios in Addis Ababa and requested him in advance to ask his Government to regard this information as strictly confidential for the time being and not to be used in any manner that would be detrimental to the interests of this Government.
I explained to the Ambassador that after the order of July 8 suspending for a period of two weeks the use of the legation radios for transmitting purposes we had made strong representations in Rome along the lines of those made by the other interested Powers. I recalled to him furthermore that I had shown him the text of the strong protest we had made to the Italian Government over the decree issued by Marshal Graziani on July 21 abolishing the right of the legations at Addis Ababa to send messages to their governments in code. The point I wished to make to the Ambassador was that we had at no time requested nor expected any exceptional treatment in this matter at the hands of the Italians.
In a telegram sent by Engert en clair yesterday morning at eight o’clock we were informed that Marshal Graziani had advised Mr. Engert that there would be no objection to his transmitting messages to his Government in code. Only at four o’clock yesterday afternoon did Mr. Engert learn that this privilege was to be granted exclusively to him and was not to be accorded to other foreign representatives in Addis Ababa.
I told the Ambassador that I had discussed this matter with the Secretary and was instructed to inform Sir Ronald that this Government, in accordance with its past practice, desired to deal in all frankness with the British Government. The Secretary desired me to point out that under the unusual circumstances now prevailing it could serve no useful purpose for the British Government to invoke Marshal Graziani’s special favor to Mr. Engert as a means of obtaining a like privilege for the British representative in Addis Ababa. On the contrary, we were convinced that any such effort would merely result in depriving Mr. Engert of the use of code messages without affecting in any way the present ban on the use of code messages by European representatives in Ethiopia. Such being the case, I wished to reemphasize the Secretary’s desire that the information I had conveyed [Page 308] to the Ambassador on this subject not be utilized in any representations on this subject to the Italian Government nor employed in any manner that might affect the interests of this Government.
I explained furthermore to the Ambassador our view that it would be far better for all concerned, including particularly the British, to see maintained the recently accorded code privilege to Mr. Engert. I assured the Ambassador, in accordance with the Secretary’s suggestion, that we should be only too glad to furnish him in confidence any information received henceforth from Mr. Engert that might be of particular concern to the British Government. I also pointed out that in case of any unexpected emergency requiring urgent communication between the British Chargé d’Affaires in Addis Ababa and his Government Mr. Engert would stand ready to assist the British Chargé in any practicable way.
The Ambassador thanked me profusely for acquainting him with this situation and said he concurred wholeheartedly in the Department’s viewpoint and would so state in communicating the information in confidence to his Government.
The Ambassador went on to say that he fully expected a “first-class massacre” in Addis Ababa in the not too distant future. He said one only had to recall the experiences of the Italians in subduing Libya to realize that they were given to such drastic action in times of near panic. It was the Latin way of doing things, he said, to resort to massacre in order to impress native populations with the authority of Borne.