The Emperor Leaves Ethiopia

Exhausted and overwhelmed, haggard from lack of sleep and food, Haile Selassie packed his bags on May 5, 1936, and hurried to get away from the advancing Italian forces. With one army of the invaders of the threshold of Addis Ababa and another rapidly closing in from the south, the mild little emperor could hardly be expected to wait for the usurpers to overtake him and his family. Accordingly he hustled his wife and children into their lumbering automobile, taking as much gold bullion as they could carry, and boarded the only railroad train in the country. Arriving at Djibouti the royal party was met by pitying throngs of loyal followers. At the port an Italian newspaper reporter, who tried to get his picture, was mobbed by the natives. Received by the French Governor in the Governor's Palace, the poor, forlorn ex-ruler was fed and put to bed...an Emperor without an Empire.