By Dr. Richard Pankhurst:-
We saw last week that Ethiopia’s Post-World War II Relations with
Britain were far from satisfactory, and the Emperor, in the mid 1940s.
reduced his contacts with that country. Now read on:
Post-War Reconstruction
The 1940s and early 1950s constituted an important period of post-war
reconstruction. Decrees designed for the most part to bring the entire
country under centralised, and standardised, administration, were issued
as early as 10 March 1942. Dealing with a wide variety of subjects,
including significantly enough taxation, they were from that date
published regularly, in the Negarit Gazeta, of official gazette. They
bore the signature of the Minister of the Pen, or official writer of
proclamations, which gave them the stamp of imperial authority.
President Roosevelt at Bitter Lake
Development, as the years went by, were based on steadily increasing
American economic, military, and other assistance. Ethiopian ties with
the United States were symbolised by a meeting between the Emperor and
President Roosevelt, held by the Suez Canal Bitter Lake at the beginning
of 1945. The British Minister in Addis Ababa, Robert Howe, hearing the
Emperor’s Egypt-bound aeroplane flying over his legation, before
day-light, at once investigated the cause of the unusual noise.
Ascertaining what this was, and perhaps fearing an Ethiopian opening to
the United States, he commissioned a small ‘plane to pursue the monarch
to Egypt.
The State Bank of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Airlines, and American Silver
Post-war Ethiopian contacts with the United States had in fact
started three years earlier. A new government bank, the State Bank of
Ethiopia, established in 1942, was run at first by an American governor,
George Blowers. A new national currency, inaugurated in 1945, owed its
successful introduction to the United States. The latter provided the
silver needed to mint 50 cent coins, whose intrinsic value ensured
popular acceptance of the new paper money. The country’s first national
air services, Ethiopian Airlines, at first almost entirely American
manned, was set up in close collaboration with the American carrier
Trans World Airlines, in 1946.
The Imperial Highway Authority
American financial assistance made possible the establishment of an
Imperial Highway Authority, IHA. Funded with assistance from the
American-sponsored International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, IBRD, it restored old and built many new roads.
An Important Landmark
An important landmark in Ethio-American relations was the signing by
the two countries, on 22 May 1953, of a 25-year Treaty of Amity and
Economic Relations. This provided inter alia for an American
communications base, the Kagnew base as it was called, just outside
Asmara, which was by then under Ethiopian rule. Training of Ethiopian
soldiers, by a British Military Mission to Ethiopia, BMME, withdrawn in
1951, was carried out, after 1953, by an American Military Assistance
Advisory Group, MAAG. American staff, including deans, were prominent in
the country’s institution of higher learning, Haile Sellassie I
University, in educational development and planning, through the United
States Point Four Program, and in secondary school teaching, through the
US Peace Corps. The majority of Ethiopian students studying abroad,
including many members of the military, went to the United States, and
Ethiopian soldiers fought, under American command, in the Korean War, of
1950-3.
Continuing, though perhaps less consistently than in Menilek’s day,
Ethiopia’s old policy of avoiding dependence on any one foreign power,
Haile Sellassie’s government also made use of foreign assistance, and
expertise, from other lands. The Air Force, the Imperial Bodyguard,
telecommunications, and schoolbuilding, were thus entrusted to Swedes,
the police to Germans and Israelis, planning to Yugoslavs, and the
country’s principal Military Academy, at Harar, to Indians. Teachers
from the sub-continent were also extensively employed, particularly in
the provinces.
Educational Developments
This period witnessed many promising developments in the educational
sector. These included the re-opening of pre-war schools, and the
establishment of many new ones. The most prestigious schools in the
capital were the Haile Sellassie I Secondary School, founded in 1943,
and the General Orde Wingate Secondary School, in 1946. Useful teaching
was also given at vocational schools, for commerce, handicrafts, and
technology Education, contrary to the situation prior to the war, was
now extremely popular. Almost every school had a waiting list for new
student intake. The Emperor, when driving in his car, was frequently
mobbed by children crying, “School! school!”. Increasing numbers of
students were sent for study abroad, mainly to English speaking
countries: first to Britain, and later to the United States, Canada, and
India. The growth of secondary education made possible the
establishment, in 1950, of the country’s first institution of higher
learning, the University College of Addis Ababa. This educational
establishment was later merged with other colleges, specialising in
agriculture, building, commerce, engineering, public health, technology,
and theology, to form the nucleus of Haile Sellassie I University,
established in 1961 (later renamed Addis Ababa University). It
subsequently also comprised colleges of business administration,
education, law, and medicine, a school of social work, and Institutes of
Ethiopian Studies, Patho-Biology, and Development Research. The
University’s administraion, and some of the faculties, were housed in
the former Imperial Palace, and its well-kept grounds, which the Emperor
donated for the purpose.
Two New Hospitals
A number of new hospitals were also established. The most prestigious
was the country’s first modern teaching hospital, named after the
Emperor’s daughter, Princess Tsahay, who had served as a nurse in
Britain in 1940, during the London Blitz. This institution, founded in
1951, was funded by international subscription, mainly in Britain. A
Russian Red Cross hospital was also set up, named after Dajazmach
Balcha, who had fought at Adwa, and later in the patriotic resistance to
the fascist occupation.
Source: http://www.linkethiopia.org
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