Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia - Societa italiana di storia ...

Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia 105
The argument that Ethiopian membership was a matter for the Allied
Governments as a whole, rather than for the British Government alone, was to
be repeated by the Foreign Office on many occasions. There is, however, no evidence
that the British ever attempted to consult those governments, let alone
that they ever proposed their acceptance of Ethiopian representation.
The exclusion of Ethiopia did not, however, go entirely unchallenged in the
Foreign Office. Sir Orme Sarjent questioned the whole case on 19 November in
a minute declaring:
I wonder whether it is really advisable to continue to adopt the attitude
that Ethiopia is not to be included in the Commission. Having agreed, as I
understand, that the Government of every Allied country which has been
occupied by the enemy is entitled to be re p resented on the Committee, I
cannot see how we can exclude Ethiopia. It is really no answer to say that
if they we re to be included the Ethiopian re p re s e n t a t i ve would be inadequate
or that he would bring up cases which we re not cove red by the
Commission’s terms of re f e re n c e. Obviously if he did his cases would be
ruled out. Nor do I see how we can base our refusal on the argument that
we do not think that the Italians committed any war crimes during the
1 9 4 0 / 41 campaign. It is surely for the Commission to judge of that in the
light of the ev i d e n c e, if any, which is submitted to it.
Notwithstanding this dissent he added a “PS,” declaring that he supposed: “we
must continue for the present the line we have adopted up till now.” 32
Roberts accordingly despatched a letter to Miss Royden, on 24 Nove m b e r.
Referring to inquiry about the appointment of an Ethiopian re p re s e n t a t i ve, he
d e c l a re d :
As you will be awa re this question has recently been raised in the House of
Commons. The position is as stated in the reply given by the Pa r l i a m e n t a r y
S e c retary for Fo reign Affairs to Mr Creech Jones on the 2nd Nove m b e r, of
which a copy is enclosed. You will of course realize that questions re l a t i n g
to the constitution and functions of the United Nations Commission are
matters for all the Allied Governments re p resented thereon and not for His
Majesty’s Government alone to decide. 3 3