I, Haile Sellassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when 50 nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties.

   There is no precedent for a Head of State himself speaking in this assembly. But there is also no precedent for a people being victim of such injustice and being at present threatened by abandonment to its aggressor. Also, there has never before been an example of any Government procceding to the systematic extermination of a nation by barbarous means, in violation of the most solemn promises made by the nations of the earth that there should not be used against innocent human beings the terrible poison of harmful gases. It is to defend a people struggling for its age-old independence that the head of the Ethiopian Empire has come to Geneva to fulfil this supreme duty, after having himself fought at the head of his armies.

   I pray to Almighty God that He may spare nations the terrible suffering that have just been inflicted on my people, and of which the chiefs who accompany me here have been the horrified witnesses.

   I t is my duty to inform the Governments assembled in Geneva, responsible as they are for the lives of millions of men, women and chiildren, of the deadly peril which threatens them, by describing to them the fate which has been suffered by Ethiopia.

   It is not only upon warriors that the Italian Government has made war. It has above all attacked populations far removed from hostilities, in order to terrorize and exterminate them.

   At the beginning, towards the end of 1935, Italian air craft hurled upon my armies bombs of tear-gas. Their effects were but slight. The soldiers learned to scatter, waiting until the wind had rapidly dispersed the poisonous gases.

   The Italian aircraft then resorted to mustard gas. Barrels of liquid were hurled upon armed groups. But this means also was not effective; the liquid affected only a few soldiers, and barrels upon the ground were themselves a warning to the troops and to the population of the danger.

   It was at the time when the operations for the encircling of Makalle were taking place that the Italian command, fearing a rout, followed the procedure which is now my duty to denounce to the world. Special sprayers were installed on board aircaft so that they could vaporize, over vast areas of territory, a fine, death-dealing rain. Groups of nine, fifteen, eighteen aircaft followed one so that the fog issuing from them formed a continuous sheet. It was thus that, as from the end of January, 1936, soldiers, women, children, cattle, rivers, lakes and pasture were drenched continually with this deadly rain. In order to kill off systematically all living creatures, in order the more surely to poison waters and pastures, the Italian command made its aircaft pass over and over again. That was its chief method of warfare.

   The very refinement of barbarism consisted in carrying ravage and terror into the most densely populated parts of the territory, the points farthest removed from the scene of hostilities. The object was to scatter fear and death over a great part of Ethiopian territory.

   These fearful tactics succeeded. Men and animals succumbed. The deadly rain that fell from the aircraft made all those whom it touched fly shrieking with pain. All those who drank the poisoned water or ate the infected food also succumbed in dreadful suffering. In tens of thousands, the victims of the Italian mustard gas fell. It is in order to denounce to the civilized world the tortures inflicted upon the Ethiopian people that I resolved to come to Geneva.

   None other than myself and my brave companions in arms could bring the League of Nations the undeniable proof. The appeals of my delegates addressed to the League of Nations had remained without any answer , my delegates had not been witnesses. That is why I decided to come myself to bear witness against the crime perpetrated against my people and give Europe a warning of the doom that awaits it, if it should bow before the accomplished fact.

   Is it necessary to remind the Assembly of the various stages of the Ethiopian drama? For 20 years past, either as Heir Apparent, Regent of the Empire, or as Emperor, I have never ceased to use all my efforts to bring my country the benefits of civilization, and in particular to establish relations of good neighbourliness with adjacent powers. In particular I succeeded in concluding with Italy the treaty of friendship of 1928, which absolutely prohibted the resort,under any pretext whatsoever, to force of arms, substituting for force and pressure the conciliation and arbitraion on which civilized nations have based international order.

   In its report of October 5th 1935, the Committee of Thirteen recognized my effort and the results that I had achieved. The Governments thought that the entry of Ethiopia into the League, whilst giving that country a new guarantee for the maintenance of her territorial integrity and independence, would help her to reach a higher level of civilization. It does not seem that in Ethiopia today there is more disorder and insecurity than in 1923. On the contrary, the country is more united and the central power is better obeyed.

   I should have procured still greater results for my people if obstacles of every kind had not been put in the way by the Italian Government which stirred up revolt and armed the rebels. Indeed the Roman Government, as it has today openly proclaimed, has never ceased to prepare for the conquest of Ethiopia. The Treaties of Friendship it signed with me were not sincere; their only object was to hide its real intenation from me. The Italian Government asserts that for 14 years it has been preparing for its present conquest. It therefore recognizes today that when it supported the admission of Ethiopia to the League of Nations in 1923, when concluded the Treaty of Friendship in 1928, when it signed the Pact Paris outlawing war, it was deceiving the whole world.

   The Ethiopia Government was, in these solemn treaties, given additional guarantees of security which would enable it to achieve further progress along the pacific path of reform on which it had set its feet, and to which it was devoting all its strength and all its heart.

Wal-Wal Pretext.

   The Wal-Wal incident, in December, 1934, came as a thunderbolt to me. The Italian provocation was obvious and I did not hesitate to appeal to the League of Nations. I invoked the provisions of the treaty of 1928, the principles of the Covenant; I urged the procedure of conciliation and arbitration.

   Unhappily for Ethiopia this was the time when a certain Government considered that the European situation made it imperative at all costs to obtain the friendship of Italy. The price paid was the abandonment of Ethiopian independence to the greed of the Italian Government. This secret agreement, contray to the obligations of the Covenant, has exerted a great influence over the course of events. Ethiopia and the whole world have suffered and are still suffering today its disastrous consequences.

   This first violation of the Covenant was followed by many others. Feeling itself encouraged in its policy against Ethiopia, The Rome Government feverishly made war preparations, thinking that the concerted pressure which was beginning to be exerted on the Ethiopia Government, might perhaps not overcome the resistance of my people to Italian domination.

   The time had to come, thus all sorts of difficulties were placed in the way with a view to breaking up the proceduer of conciliation and arbitration. All kinds of obstacles were placed in the way of that procedure. Governments tried to prevent the Ethiopian Government from finding arbitrators amongst their nationals: when once the arbitral tribunal was set up pressure was exercised so that an award favouable to Italy should be given.

   All this was in vain: the arbitrators- two of whom were Italian officials- were forced to recognize unanimously that in the Wal-Wal incident, as in the subsequent incident no international responsibility was to be attributed to Ethiopia.