[HAILE SELASSIE I]: (1892-1975) Ethiopian Regent Plenipotentiary 1916-30 and Emperor 1930-74. A rare original printed 8vo propaganda sheet issued in the name of Haile Selassie and air-dropped over Ethiopia by the South African Air Force in 1941, printed in red and with the circular Imperial Seal featuring the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah at the head, the Amharic text stating, in part, 'The Italians have been defeated at Metema. Using the British airplanes, tanks and artillery, we have taken over Galabat and we have burned down Metema and destroyed them [the Italians] there. We have caused him [the enemy] to lose troops of three battalions…..By standing at the Ethiopian gate, I will be banging [the Italians] by hands which are as strong as steel. And now, because the Italians have totally lost hope, they are gathering and are about to send whatever troops they could get from Gojam and Gondar. Therefore, now is your chance to trap these drunken fishes [disillusioned soldiers]. Ethiopia stretches its hands unto God. Thanks be to God who has made this victory possible for us'. Lightly affixed with tape at the left edge to the inside of a paper folder annotated in an unidentified hand to the front and bearing the printed coat of arms of the University of Edinburgh to the verso. Light staining to the left edge, caused by the tape, otherwise VG

 

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had long held a desire for a new Italian Empire, promising his people a 'place in the sun' to match the extensive colonial empires of Great Britain and France. In early October 1935 the Italians began invading Ethiopia as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War commenced. In the following year the Emperor went into exile in England, where he was to stay until 1941. Haile Selassie spent this time focussing on countering Italian propaganda as to the state of Ethiopian resistance and the legality of the occupation. During the first half of World War II British forces, which consisted primarily of Ethiopian-backed African and South African colonial troops led by Colonel Orde Wingate, coordinated the military effort to liberate Ethiopia. The Emperor himself issued several imperial proclamations in this period, demonstrating that, while authority was not divided up in any formal way, British military might and the emperor's populist appeal could be joined in the concerted effort to liberate Ethiopia. On 18^th January 1941, during the East African Campaign, Haile Selassie crossed the border between Sudan and Ethiopia and the standard of the Lion of Judah was raised again. Italy was defeated by a force of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, Free France, Free Belgium and Ethiopian patriots and on 5^th May 1941 Haile Selassie entered Addis Ababa and personally addressed the Ethiopian people.