Abyssinia (Ethiopia) Was Once Again in the News in the Summer Of
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CHAPTER - 3 A SCINTILLATING SCOOP Abyssinia (Ethiopia) was once again in the news in the summer of 1935, though the scenario this time was vastly different. There was the threat of an imminent invasion of the country by Italy looming large at this juncture. The Italians, who had set up some kind of hegemony over Abyssinia during the latter half of the nineteenth century, had been compelled after a decisive battle in 1895 to recognize its independence. They, however, did not appear to have reconciled themselves to Ethiopia's independence, as Emperor Haile Selassie continued to face Italian threats right from the time of his coronation in 1930. Mussolini, the Italian dictator, having consolidated his position at home by 1934, decided to launch offensives abroad, and Ethiopia was to become the first casualty of this power- hungry imperialist. In early 1935 it became quite obvious that a full-scale invasion of the country was imminent. Fleet Street, the nerve-centre of the British Press, got busy straightway and “saw, heard and spoke no other subJect" (MGG 247). People started cashing in on their African experience, however insubstantial it might have been. Most of them made a bee-line for Ethiopia, as representatives of this paper or that, to cover the ensuing war. Evelyn Waugh, too, decided to help himself of this opportunity. After all, unlike many others, he had actually been to Ethiopia earlier and had also written a book {Remote People) about his travel experiences in that country. 56 However, his "unfashionable political attitude and complete inexperience in war reporting"* made it somewhat difficult for him to get an assignment as a war correspondent. This "unfashionable political attitude,” referred to Waugh's extreme views on the question of the impending Italian action in Ethiopia. He had fully Justified the action and, in fact, had been quite critical of "Britain's failure to support Italy over Abyssinia."^ A.D. Peters, Waugh's astute literary agent, proved quite resourceful, though, and managed to get an assignment for him as a correspondent for the Daily Mail, "one of the few newspapers in Britain sympathetic to the Fascist cause" (Diaries 391). Waugh's pro-Fascist stance suited the paper quite well. Waugh left for Ethiopia in August 1935, and covered the opening stages of the war. He returned to England in January 1936. On his way back home he interviewed Mussolini in Rome. He paid a return visit to Ethiopia in the summer of 1936. The purpose of this visit was to up-date the travel book Waxtgh in Abyssinia, based on his latest experiences in Ethiopia, which he was engaged in writing then. He was back home in September 1936. Waugh does not seem to have taken this assignment of his as a war correspondent to Ethiopia seriously. Sykes is of the view that though Waugh was a good journalist, he was "not a successful war correspondent in 1935" (Sykes 219). His performance, Sykes ^Martin Stannard, Eu&lyn WaxLgh ; Th& Early Years (London J.H. Dent, 1986) 397. ^Stannard 396. 57 thinks, was far better when he later covered the war in Europe. Also, possibly, this trip to Ethiopia was not as enJoying as the first one had been in 1930. In a letter to Laura Herbert, his wife-to-be, whon he married in 1937, he wrote from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, that he was "universally regarded as an Italian spy... ny name is mud all round— with the British Legation because of a novel I wrote... with the Ethiopians because of the [ Daily ] Mail's policy, with the other Journalists because I am not really a journalist " (Sykes 220). The novel referred to is, of course, Bloch. Mischief, which had greatly antagonized the local British population, as mentioned already in Chapter-1 [See page 26]. The Daily Mail's policy referred to its pro-Fascist stance. The war itself took a long time to start, though at one stage it had seemed imminent. War correspondents, nevertheless, kept on filing their reports, most of which were simply cooked-up yarns. Waugh preferred to keep a low profile which greatly exasperated his paper as it was not getting anything to match the reports being published by other papers. However, some time later, he chanced to seize upon an item which could have proved a real scoop. He composed the message in Latin so that it could not be 'sold' to other correspondents by the Post Office officials. The sub-editor in London, who received the message, did not know Latin and thought that it was some kind of a Joke. Consequently, what might have been an exclusive news item for the Daily Mail was published much later when it had become "common property" (Sykes 222). 58 The failure on this front, however, was to be made up on another. His experiences as a war correspondent, the vagaries of war-reportings, and the Journalistic world itself, supplied hin with such a wealth of material which, as he put it in another letter to Laura Herbert, would "make a funny novel" (Sykes 224). The novel did materialize eventually and was entitled, so very appropriately, Scoop. It was published in 1938. Waugh also recorded his experiences and adventures in Ethiopia in a travel book entitled Waugh in Abyssinia, published earlier in 1936. These two books, thus, were the real gains of Waugh's second visit to Ethiopia. Ethiopia, it appeared, greatly excited the artist in Waugh. There was something in that country's air which strangely aroused his literary sensibilities. It must be a rare instance in the history of British fiction that a novelist's visits to a country resulted in the writing of two travel books and two novels, as happened in the case of Evelyn Waugh's two visits to Ethiopia, in 1930 and 1935. Like Black Mischi&f, Scoop is also a direct off-shoot of Waugh's travel experiences in Ethiopia— experiences mainly as a war correspondent. It was quite natural for a keen observer like Waugh, who also possessed a fine sense of the comic, to visualize the immense possibility of exploiting the vagaries of journalism. As noted earlier, his mind had already started working on such a possibility when he wrote to his future wife that he had collected enough material to "make a funny novel". The manner in which the whole exercise of reporting a war was being conducted, could not escape Waugh's exuberant sense of satire. Here again, thus, was an encounter, this time 59 with the topsy-turvy world of modern- day oournalisn, which could be deftly transformed into a metaphor that stood for the very topsy-turvy nature of human affairs. The story of Scoop goes like this : John Boot, a novelist, finding himself in some trouble over a girlfriend, approaches Mrs Julia Stitch, the wife of a cabinet minister and the driving-force behind London's social circle, to help him get away. Mrs Stitch prevails upon Lord Copper, press magnate and owner of the Daily B&ast, to send Boot as a war correspondent to Ishmaelia, where a civil war seems imminent. Owing to some confusion, instead of John Boot, one William Boot, who writes a bi-weekly half-column on Nature entitled "Lush Places" for the Daily B&ast , is despatched to Ishmaelia where he finds himself amongst a swarm of other war correspondents. The situation is somewhat fluid at Jacksonburg, the capital of Ishmaelia, and there is a lot of uncertainty in the air with all kinds of rumours afloat. Dr Benito, the Director of the Press Bureau of Ishmaelia. is also not very helpful to the correspondents. It is then given out that fighting has started at a place called Laku. All the correspondents, except William, make a hurried departure for Laku which later turns out to be a non-existent place. It is all a ruse to make the correspondents leave Jacksonburg which is in the throes of a coup. Meanwhile. William has found a new interest— a German woman named Katchen, whose husband has gone out on some business. She makes William buy some stones collected by her husband. These stones later prove to be gold ores. It is through Katchen that William unknowingly chances upon a scoop about the President of Ishmaelia being imprisoned in his palace 60 by a Junta headed by none else than Dr Benito. William's despatch hits the headlines in London which, in turn, turns the table on the Junta. One Mr Baldwin, an English businessman whom William had met on his way to Ishnaelia. takes control of the situation and helps in reinstating the President. This he does in return for huge gold concessions for his principals. William. on his return to London, is recommended for a knighthood, but it is John Boot the novelist who gets it now. Lord Copper holds a banquet in William's honour. William declines the invitation but his uncle, posing as William Boot, attends it; Lord Copper being none the wiser. It is quite obvious from a study of Waugh's travel book Waugh in Abyssinia and the diary entries pertaining to the period when Waugh was in Ethiopia as a war correspondent.that Scoop not only owes its origin to Waugh's experiences there but the degree of its dependence on these experiences is also quite heavy. The imaginary country in the novel that corresponds with Ethiopia is Ishmaelia this time. The situation in Ishmaelia, as we find it described in the novel, is not very different from the one that existed in Ethiopia in 1935.