Benito Mussolini in his strutting, self-appointed rôle as "Protector of the Mohammedans" has vexed Britain and France for years by giving asylum in Rome to prominent Islamites who for one reason or another have been run out of the Great Powers' colonies. Last week these sloe-eyed clients of the sloe-eyed Duce were zealously trying to recruit for him fierce Arab troops for use as mercenaries against Ethiopia. In Jerusalem, however, the Emir Abdullah of Transjordania, who keeps his throne with the aid of British bombing planes, lashed out with an interview which made prime reading in London.
"I personally do not like Mussolini," said the Emir. "His manner of speaking and the way he appears in photographs make me imagine him to be a cheap comedian. His pompous personal demonstrations do not appeal to the Arab, accustomed as we are to the simplicity of the Sahara. I wish I could be the first Arab to enroll as a volunteer to protect Ethiopia, the ancient friend of Mohammed! What a shame that Rome—the capital of Christianity—is attempting to enslave one of the most ancient Christian nations. It is something more than Power, it is Heathenism. It has divorced the Italians from Christian ethics!"
Meanwhile in London orders were dispatched by His Majesty's Government to have over one million sand bags rushed from Egypt to be piled around and above the British Legation in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in case the Cheap Comedian should send bombing planes to blow Emperor Power of Trinity out of his palace. Punctually at 11:55 a. m. one day last week a pink silk veil covering the Emperor's box in Parliament was drawn aside and the shrewd, sharp-faced potentate addressed his people. He spoke in native dialect. Il Duce said afterward that his actual words as cabled from Addis Ababa by the Italian Minister were far stronger than the flowery official text later released in French to impress world opinion. According to this, His Majesty cried, "My people, your Emperor, who addresses you, will be in your midst, not hesitating to pour out his life's blood for the independence of Ethiopia. . . . God is our shield and our buckler against the modern weapons of our enemies of tomorrow. . . . Soldiers, when you have heard that in battle your loved and respected Emperor has fallen, do not weep or despair."
"What Star Twinkles?" Thus posing as dramatically as possible as the underdog (which indeed he is), Ethiopia's smart Emperor stood for a long moment to receive his people's cheers, then disappeared behind his pink veil. Meanwhile in the U. S. the Negro Afro news service reported that blacks were swarming to enlist to fight for Ethiopia: "Chicago leads with 8,000 enrolled; Detroit comes second with 5,000; Kansas City, 2,000; and Philadelphia 1,500." This news was datelined from Manhattan and Afro's correspondent added with some scorn that Harlem had supplied only 850 recruits, "while Boston, the cradle of U. S. freedom and the home of Crispus Attucks, first American to die in the Revolutionary War, has enlisted only 200.*"