123 EN 3/435
The Minister Resident in Ethiopia ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s instruction No. 55 of February 11, 1936,38 with which the Department was good enough to enclose the Letter of Recall of my predecessor and my own Letter of Credence as American Minister Resident and Consul General to Ethiopia.
Upon receipt of this instruction I addressed a Note (No. 38 of March 18, 1936) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, transmitting a copy of the President’s letter and requesting an indication of the time and place which His Majesty the Emperor might wish to designate for the presentation of my Letter of Credence. But as the Emperor had left Addis Ababa for Dessie last November and had since then established his headquarters even further north, I was verbally informed that an audience would be arranged as soon as he returned to the capital.
As stated in my telegram No. 214 of April 16, 11 a.m.,38 it did not seem advisable for me to seek an audience of the Emperor either at Dessie or General Headquarters, so that I could only wait until I was informed that His Majesty was in town.
This opportunity did not present itself until April 30, 1936, when the Emperor—who had arrived clandestinely in the early hours of the morning—sent for me at 6 p.m. This summons was all the more unexpected as only very few people knew of the Emperor’s presence because of the danger that Italian planes might take advantage of the fact and bomb Addis Ababa. (See the Legation’s telegram No. 254 of April 30, 8 p.m.38)
That the Emperor should have remembered my wish to present my credentials and that he should have taken the time—amidst the confusion which reigned and which presaged his last public appearance—to receive me and to chat with me as if he had all the time in the world, would seem to be the best proof that Haile Selassie I is a very remarkable personage and deserves all the encomiums that have been bestowed upon him.
I was received in private audience in one of the small throne rooms of the Old Ghibby at 6:30 p.m. My conversation with the Emperor lasted about twenty minutes and was reported in my telegram No. 259 of May 1, 10 p.m. I need only add here that our interview was in French and, contrary to the Emperor’s usual practice, took place without the aid of an interpreter.
Respectfully yours,