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Precisely how loathe the President was to believe that there is going to be war, he then showed by having all U. S. citizens in Ethiopia instructed to depart. Immediately the Ethiopian Mission Service ordered all its U. S. and other missionaries to remain at their posts in Ethiopia "whatever happens." Its explanation: "We put our faith in God, and do not expect consular protection." At latest reports from Washington the State Department still had not ordered Chargé D'Af- faires William Perry George to cable the full text of Emperor Power of Trinity's appeal. An ingenious young man at whiling away sultry hours in the squat, square U. S. Legation at Addis Ababa, Mr. George has taken up the native slingshot, become an adept performer.
Decision to Struggle. Meanwhile Dictator Mussolini continued in cold blood to make efficient preparations last week for his Ethiopia-snatching war, thus giving other statesmen every opportunity to prove their humanitarianism by trying to stop him. II Duce went to the length of publicly demonstrating a compound produced by Italian chemists to be strewn by Italian airplanes on the soil of Ethiopia to sear and burn the proverbially bare feet of Emperor Power of Trinity's savage troops. At the demonstration a photographer trod on the stuff, was picked up by Italian soldiers and rushed to a watering trough into which the scorched leather soles of his shoes were thrust.
Same day tall, fair Vittorio Mussolini, 18, and chunky, dark Bruno Mussolini, 17, the youngest regularly licensed air pilots in Italy, called on their father as Minister of Aviation, to enlist for fighting service against Ethiopia. Fascists present said that Il Duce received his sons with a visible effort to master his feelings as a father, grunted a wordless assent to their request, dashed his signature upon their papers of enlistment.
Finally last week the Dictator slipped secretly out of Rome, so that he would not be followed by the more prominent correspondents whose dispatches would be considered proof that he had said what he was going to say. This was nothing less than a verbal declaration of war on Ethiopia, delivered from the top of a cannon at Salerno to troops as they were about to embark. On the way to Salerno the flying Dictator who piloted his own plane passed through an electric storm. Lightning charges collected on the wireless antennae, shocked the radio operator into a faint, but the big trimotored ship roared safely on. Amateur correspondents reported that Benito Mussolini said:
"We have decided on the struggle and we will carry it to the end! Remember, Italians have always defeated the black races. The only such battle that turned against us was Adua [Ethiopian victory of 1896]. That was an exception. There we were overwhelmed by superiority of numbers. There 14,000 Italians fought 100,000 Ethiopians. The reason for this heroic and unfortunate exception was that Italy had at that time a government less concerned for its soldiers than for Parliamentary chicanery. Today all Italy is behind its sons! Today all Italy prefers a heroic to a useless life."
Throughout this speech Orator Mussolini was frequently interrupted by the troops shouting "War! War! War!"