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Russia And Abyssinia

Volume 34: debated on Thursday 20 June 1895

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I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he can give the House any information as to the Russian Religious Mission to Abyssinia; whether the head of that mission was a Russian colonel; whether it is true that an Abyssinian Embassy has gone to St. Petersburg to ask for the Czar's protection against the Italians; and whether several Russian retired officers have gone to take service with the Abyssinian Army?

I have to say, in addition to the information given to the hon. Member on the subject on the 28th of February, that the expedition arrived at Obokh on the 22nd of January, and consisted of a colonel, a captain, a doctor, and a priest, with two servants. After staying there a few days they went to Jibuti, and eventually proceeded with a native escort to Harrar, which they reached in a fortnight. From an account by one of the members of the Mission, published in the Russian newspaper Novoe Vremya early in March, there seems to have been a question of sending a Mission of Abyssinian Priests to St. Petersburg to establish regular relations with the Russian Church, but Her Majesty's Government have no definite information on the subject, nor have they heard of retired Russian officers taking service with the Abyssinian army.