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

134 Richard Pankhurst
trial. The trial of Graziani was bro ken off last autumn on medical gro u n d s ,
and Badoglio is 78 years old and feeble. 7 9
If, however, the Ethiopian Government should insist on making this
approach we should have no alternative but to accept it, and, providing
agreement were reached between the four ambassadors, to transmit it to
the four ambassadors.
Pemberton-Pigott concluded by noting that the Italian press had accused the
British Government of “being behind the earlier Ethiopian approach to the
Italian Ambassador, but action was being taken in Rome to try to counteract
such reports.” 80
Four days later, on 17 September, the Ethiopian Minister called on the Fo re i g n
O f f i c e. After referring to the Italian Ambassador’s refusal to accept the démarc h e,
he asked its advice as to what should be his Government’s next step. He was told,
a c c o rding to a Fo reign Office minute, that “while we did not question the merits
of the Ethiopian case we considered their original request to the Italian
G overnment was most inopportune coming as it did immediately before the discussion
on the future of Eritrea at the [United Nations] General Assembly, and
that since he now asked our advice we could only say that we thought that the
Ethiopian Government would do well not to press the question.” 81
The Ethiopian Government was apparently more interested in the future of
the ex - c o l o ny than in a war crimes trial, the success of which was far from certain.
In any event, Ethiopian initiatives on the issue then came to an abrupt end.
The Historical Record
Though the possibility of prosecuting Italian war criminals was then re m o t e,
the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice issued one last, albeit va l u a b l e, memora n d u m
on the subject. Published, “by command” of the Empero r, it was entitled
Documents on Italian War Crimes submitted to the United Nations War Crimes
C o m m i s s i o n, and appeared in two volumes, in 1949 and 1950.
The first volume re p roduced telegrams between Mussolini and the Minister of
the Colonies on the one hand, and Graziani and subordinate officials on the
o t h e r, as well as Italian circulars and orders relating to “pacification.” These
materials we re given in the original Italian, with English translations. The second