765.84/4938: Telegram
The Minister Resident in Ethiopia (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 31—8:15 p.m.]
497. Rifle fire in the neighborhood of the Legation started at about 11 a.m. and a few minutes later a stray bullet came through the roof of our Chancery and lodged in the wall behind clerk Fidele’s chair. Had he been sitting at his desk at that moment he would almost certainly have been hit.
Firing in the immediate vicinity of this Legation seems totally unnecessary and I am making urgent representations to the authorities to put a stop to it.
There is no indication of an organized large scale attack on the city and the sporadic outbreaks here and there could easily be dealt with if the Italians did not lose their heads so easily.