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

120 Richard Pankhurst
Government as it would not be advisable to encourage that Government to submit
cases arising out of the 1935 War, only to inform them upon receipt of such
cases that nothing can be done by this Commission.” 56
Foreign Office Reaction to the Peace Treaty
The Fo reign Office meanwhile continued to oppose the prosecution of
Italians for crimes in Ethiopia. Instead of accepting the implications of the Pe a c e
T re a t y, it sought to perpetuate the earlier UN Commission resolution. The
British position was formulated by Garner, who wrote on 29 January 1947, that
the “safest line” for Britain “would be to say that we consider that the UNWC C
was set up to deal with war crimes arising out of the present war and that it wa s
not contemplated that it would deal with other war crimes.” Shifting the earlier
Fo reign Office position that there was no relationship between the invasion of
Ethiopia and the post-September 1939 wa r, he now declared: “The question
whether there is any connection between this war [i.e., the one which had begun
in 1939] and any other war is not there f o re considered material and the
Commission does not wish to ex p ress any opinion on that point.”
He therefore concluded by arguing: “If the Ethiopian Govt. consider that
they have the right under the Peace Treaty to call the Italian Govt. to surrender
war criminals,” it would be “for the Ethiopian Govt. to make the necessary representations
to the Italian Govt. direct” (i.e., without involving the British
Government). Riches, another Foreign Office official, accepted this thesis, in a
minute of 29 January, but could not avoid adding the following most pertinent
observation: “I agree; but if the Commission are going to examine the provisions
of the peace treaty relating to Ethiopia and their bearing on their resolution
they will presumably have to consider the Article 38.” He added, almost
brutally, that he considered this “an additional argument for keeping the
Ethiopians away from the UNWCC.” These views won Foreign Office approval.
Another official, Archibald Ross, added the following observation:
The Ethiopian Govt. certainly can, & must, approach the Italian Gov t .
d i rect, once the Peace Treaty comes into forc e, and I suppose it is open to
them to claim, as war criminals, persons who committed crimes (of the
n a t u re of war crimes) between Oct. 3 1935 & the outbreak of the wa r