ADDRESS
TO THE U.S. CONGRESS
I count it a privilege to address what is one
of the greatest Parliaments in the world today – where the forces that make
great one of the most powerful of nations have been and are being brought to
bear and where issues of world-wide importance have been decided.
The extent of that power and influence and the
rapidity with which you have reached such a summit of importance for the rest
of the world are unparalleled in world history and surpass all conceivable
comparisons. Two hundred years ago today, as I am speaking, General George Washington
won the battle of Fort Necessity, a victory in the gradual forging together of
the United States.
What a phenomenal progress has been made in
that interval of two hundred years, an interval which – you may pardon me as
representative of one the most ancient nations in the world – is surely but a
surprisingly short passage of time.
So great are your power and wealth that the
budget of a single American city often equals that of an entire nation.
As
in the case of other countries, you gave us lend-lease assistance during the
war and, at present both mutual security and technical assistance. Yet, so vast
are your power and resources that even after deducting all expenses of the
Federal Government, you have met the costs of this assistance in one-quarter of
an hour – fifteen minutes – of your annual production.
Of
what interest is it to you then, you may well ask, that I, the head of what
must be for you a small and remote country, should appear before you in the
midst of your deliberations? I do not take it upon myself to point out why
Ethiopia is important to the United States – that you can best judge for
yourselves, but rather, to explain to you with brevity, the circumstances which
make Ethiopia a significant factor in world politics. Since so much of world
politics is today, influenced by the decisions which you, Members of Congress,
reach, here in these halls, it is perhaps, not unimportant that I set out these
considerations for you.
Relative Terms
A
moment ago, I remarked that, for you, Ethiopia must appear to be a small and
remote country. Both of these terms are purely relative. In fact, so far as
size is concerned, Ethiopia has exactly the area and population of your entire
Pacific Far-West consisting of the states of California Oregon, Washington and
also Idaho. We are remote, perhaps, only in the sense that We enjoy a secure
position on the high plateau of East Africa protected by the Red Sea and Our
mountain fastness. However, by the numerous airlines that link us with the rest
of the world, it is possible to arrive in Washington from Addis Ababa in less
than two days.
By
one of those strange parallels of history, Ethiopia and a certain well-known country
of the Far East who both enjoy highly defensible and strategic positions in
their respective areas of the world, both, for similar reasons,
simul-taneously, at the beginning of the seventeenth century came out of their
period of isolation. As in the case of the other country, that isolation came
to an end in the latter half of the nineteenth century, with this difference
that, upon abandon-ing her policy of isolation she was immediately called upon
to defend against tremendous odds, her thousand-year-old independence. Indeed
so bitter has been this struggle against foreign aggrandizement that were it
not for our persistence and for the enormous social, economic and material
advance Ethiopia has made in the interval and particularly since the last war,
Ethiopia might very well have returned to her policy of isolation.
In consequence, in many respects, and
particularly since the last World War, Ethiopia has become a new frontier of
widely expanding opportunities, notwithstanding the tremendous set-back which
we suffered in the unprovoked invasion of Our country nineteen years ago and
the long years of unaided struggle against an infinitely stronger enemy. The
last seven years have seen the quadrupling of Our foreign trade, currency and
foreign exchange holdings. Holdings of American dollars have increased ten
times over. The Ethiopian dollar has become the only U.S. dollar-based currency
in the Middle East today. The assets of Our national bank of issue have
increased one thousand percent. Blessed with what is perhaps the most fertile
soil in Africa, well-watered, and with a wide variety of climates ranging from
the temperate on the plateau, to the tropical in the valleys, Ethiopia can grow
throughout the year crops, normally raised only in widely separated areas of
the earth’s surface.
Since the war, Ethiopia has become the granary of the Middle East, as
well as the only exporter of meat, cereals and vegetables. Whereas at the end
of the war, every educational facility had been destroyed, today, schools are
spring-ing up throughout the land, the enrolment has quadrupled and, as in the
pioneer days in the United States, and indeed, I presume, as in the lives of
many of the distinguished members of Congress here present, school-children, in
their zeal for education, take all sorts of work in order to earn money to
purchase text books and to pursue their education.
Sea Access Regained
Finally, through the return in 1952, of its historical ports on the Red
Sea and of the long-lost territory of Eritrea, Ethiopia has not only regained
access to the sea, but has been one of the few states in the post-war world to
have regained a lost territory pursuant to post-war treaties and in application
of peaceful methods.
We have thus become a land of expanding opportunities where the American
pioneering spirit, ingenuity, and technical abilities have been and will
continue to be welcomed.
A thousand-year-old history of struggles to defend the territorial
integrity of Our country, the long fight for liberation two decades ago and the
recent campaign in Korea have given Our army an esprit de corps and a fighting
spirit that, I believe, can stand, without misgiving, for comparison.
Today, Our fighting forces are among the largest and best trained in the
Middle East.
Unlike many other countries, Ethiopia has long been a nation of small,
rather than of large land-owners. Moreover, a profoundly democratic tradition
has assured in the past, as it assures today, the rise to the highest post of
responsibility in the government, of men of the humblest of origins.
It
is but natural, therefore, that as a state which has existed for three thousand
years, which has regained its independence by the blood of its patriots, which
commands the allegiance and loyalty of even its most lowly subjects, and which
enjoys an unusually sound economy, should have a regime of marked stability in
that area of the world where stability is so frequently absent today.
Factor In World Politics
Such is the state of Ethiopia today about
which I am speaking. It is against this background that I wish to talk to you
of Ethiopia as a factor in world politics. Her geographic location is of great
significance, with her long shore-line and its archipelago of hundreds of
islands. Ethiopia occupies a unique position on the most constricted but
important of strategic lines of communications in the world, that which passes
through the Red Sea. She also lies on the other most strategic line of
communication in the world, namely the world band of telecommunications which,
because of natural phenomena, circles the world at the equator.
However, in yet perhaps a broader sense is
Ethiopia’s geographical position of significance. Through her location on the
shores of the Red Sea and in the horn of East Africa, Ethiopia has profound
historical ties with the rest of the Middle East as well as with Africa.
In this respect she stands in a completely
unique position. Her culture and social structure were founded in the mingling
of her original culture and civilization with the Hamitic and Semitic
migrations into Africa from the Arabian peninsula, and, in fact, today, our
language, Amharic, is a member of that large family of Hamitic and Semitic
tongues and. therefore, intimately related to Hebrew and Arabic.
Indeed, at one time Ethiopia extended to both sides of the Red Sea as
well as north to Upper Egypt. It was, therefore, not without reason that,
during the Middle Ages, the Emperor was known as “he who maintains order
between the Christians and the Moslems.” A profound comprehension of and
sympathy with the other states of the Middle East naturally inspires Ethiopian
national policies.
On the other hand, three thousand years of history make of Ethiopia a
profoundly African state in all that that term implies. In the United Nations,
she has been to the forefront in the defense of Africa’s racial, economic and
social interests.
Unique Link
Finally, both culturally and geographically, Ethiopia serves to a unique
degree as the link between the Middle East and Africa. Situated in the horn of
Africa, and along the shores of the Red Sea, with the desert area of Africa to
the north and west, it is but natural that Ethiopia should be the filter known
as “he who maintains order between the Christians and the Moslems.” A profound
comprehension of and sympathy with the other states of the Middle East
naturally inspires Ethiopian national policies, through which the ideas and
influences of the continent of Africa should pass to the East and vice versa.
Thus,
our social and political outlook and orientation became important not only in
terms of Middle Eastern and African, but also in terms of world politics – and
this leads me to point to a factor which I consider to be of unique
significance. We have a profound orientation towards the West. One
consideration alone, although there are others, would suffice to explain this
result. The two Americas and the continent of Europe together constitute
exactly one-third of the land masses of the world. It is in this one-third that
are concentrated the peoples of the Christian Faith. With but rare exceptions
Christianity does not extend beyond the confines of the Mediterranean. Here, I
find it significant that, in point of fact, in this remaining two-thirds of the
earth’s surface, Ethiopia is the state having the largest Christian population
and is by far the largest Christian state in the Middle East. In fact, Ethiopia
is unique among the nations of the world in that it is, today, the one
remaining Christian state that can trace her history unbroken as a Christian
polity from the days when the Roman Empire itself was still a vigorous reality.
Unifying Force
The strength of the Christian tradition
has been of vital significance in Our national history, and as a force for the
unification of the Empire of Ethiopia. It is this force which gives us, among
the other countries of the Middle East, a profound orientation towards the
West. We read the same bible. We speak a common spiritual language.
It is this heritage of ideals and
principles, that has excluded from our conscious, indeed, from our unconscious
processes, the possibility of compromising with those principles which We hold
sacred. We have sought to remain faithful to the principles of respect for the
rights of others, and the right of each people to an independent existence. We,
like you, are profoundly opposed to the un-Christian use of force and are, as
you, attached to a concept of the pacific settlement of disputes.
Our lone struggle before the outbreak of the last world catastrophe as,
indeed, our recent participation in the combined efforts and the glorious
comradeship in arms in Korea have marked us, like you, in giving more than lip
service to these ideals. It is your deep comprehension of our ideals and
struggles in which it has been my privilege to lead, at times not without
heartbreak, My beloved people, and Our common comradeship in arms that have laid
a very sure and lasting basis for friendship between a great and a small
country.
Broad Relations
Last
year, we concluded with you a new treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation
designed to assure to American business enterprises expanded opportunities in
Ethiopia. Our dollar-based currency is also there to assure the ready return to
the United States of the profits of their investments. We have entrusted to
American enterprises the development of our civil aviation which has surpassed
all expectations. To American enterprise we have confided the exploitation of
our oil resources as well as of our gold deposits. Although my country is 8,000
miles removed from the eastern seaboard of the United States, United States
exports to Ethiopia, have, notwithstanding this heavy handicap, pushed forward
to the forefront in Ethiopia.
Conversely,
the United States stands in first rank of countries to whom we export. Ethiopia
has, from the province of Kaffa, given the world the name and product of
coffee. The coffee which you drink attains its unique and pleasant American
flavour in part at least through the added mixture of Ethiopian coffee.
American shoes are made, in part at least, from Ethiopian goatskins which are
principally exported to the United States.
On
the other hand, you have given us valuable support, not only in lend-lease assistance
during the war, and today through mutual security and technical assistance
agreements, but you have also powerfully aided us in obtaining rectification of
long-standing injustices. If, today, the brother territory of Eritrea stands
finally united under the Crown and if Ethiopia has regained her shore-lines on
the Red Sea, it has been due, in no small measure to the contribution of the
United States of America. I am happy to take this occasion to express to you,
the Congress which has approved this assistance, the sincere and lasting
appreciation of my people.
Mutual Security
This
collaboration with the West and with the United States in particular has taken
yet broader forms. There is our military collaboration based on the mutual
security programme. If we leave out the Atlantic group, Ethiopia has been the
only state of the Middle East to follow the example of the United States in
sending forces to Korea for the defence of collective security.
In
so doing, Ethiopia has been inspired by a vision which is broader than her
pre-occupation with regional policies or advantages. Nearly two decades ago, I
personally assumed before history the responsibility of placing the fate of My
beloved people on the issue of collective security, for surely, at that time
and for the first time in world history, that issue was posed in all its
clarity. My searching of conscience convinced me of the rightness of my course
and if, after untold suffering, and, indeed, unaided resistance at the time of
the aggression we now see that final vindication of that principle in our joint
action in Korea, I can only be thankful that God gave me strength to persist in
our faith until the moment of its recent glorious vindication.
We do not view this principle as an extenuation
for failing to defend our homeland to the last drop of one’s blood, and indeed,
our own struggles during the last two decades bear testimony to our conviction
that in matters of collective security as of Providence, “God helps him who
helps himself.”
Universal Principle
However,
We feel that nowhere can the call for aid against aggression be refused by any
state large or small. It is rather a universal principle or it is no principle
at all. It cannot admit of regional application or be of regional
res-ponsibility. That is why We, like you, have sent troops half way around the
world to Korea. We must face that responsibility for its application wherever
it may arise in these troubled hours of world history. Faithful to the sacred
memory of her patriots who fell in Ethiopia and in Korea in defence of that
principle, Ethiopia cannot do otherwise.
The world has ceaselessly sought for and
has striven to apply some system for assuring the peace of the world. Many
solutions have been proposed and many have failed. Today the system which we
have advocated and with which the name of Ethiopia is inseparably associated
has, after her sacrifices of two decades ago, and her recent sacrifices with
the United States and others in Korea, finally demonstrated its worth. However,
no system, not even that of collective security, can succeed unless there is
not only a firm determination to apply it universally both in space and time,
but also whatever be the cost. Having successfully applied the system of
collective security in Korea, we must now, wherever in the world the peace is
threatened, pursue its application more resolutely than ever and with
courageous acceptance of its burdens. We have the sacred duty to our children
to spare them the sacrifices which we have known. I call upon the world for
determination fearlessly to apply and to accept as you and We have accepted
them – the sacrifices of collective security.
It is here that Our common Christian
heritage unites two peoples across the globe in a community of ideals and
endeavour. Ethiopia seeks only to affirm and broaden that co-operation between
peace-loving nations.
May
26, 1954.
Selected Speeches of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie
– page 109 –
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