Autograph quotation signed. In Amharic.
Folio. 1 page. On uncut wove paper, bearing the Schoellers-Parole blind embossed seal, margins uncut.
€ 1,500.00
The original autograph contribution of Bajironde Zallaku to the Committee of the World League for Peace (Ligue Mondiale pour la Paix), a remarkable organization formed in 1925 with close ties to the League of Nations. The Committee itself was composed of such notaries as Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, King Carol II of Romania, John D Rockefeller, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein, who personally gathered the present manuscripts over the course of seven years (1925-32). Among the public figures who contributed to the project were dignitaries from the newly-created League of Nations' member states. "The League of Nations acts for peace and security for the whole world". With French inscription in his hand "Premier Deleguè de l'Empire d'Ethiopie, Bajironde Zallaka". Zallaka was the former Ethiopian Minister of Finance.
The Ethiopian Empire's relationship with the League of Nations is of particular interest during this period. In 1923 Haile Selassie I had secured entry into the League as the only remaining independent African state. In 1936 the Italian delegation withdrew from the League after their brutal invasion of Ethiopia, and Haile Selassie made his famed journey to Geneva to plead his country's case in person. Although the Empire was by now in Italian hands, Selassie's entry to the hall of the League of Nations was sympathetically accompanied by an introduction as "His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Ethiopia". His speech on the occasion, given amids the jeers of the Italian journalists present, is sometimes considered among the most stirring of the 20th century.
Pax Mundi. Livre d'or de la paix. Enquete universelle de la Ligue mondiale pour la paix sous le haut patronage de son comite d'honneur avec l'approbation de la Societe des nations, du Bureau international du travail et de la Cour permanente de justice internationale. Geneve, Societe paxunis, 1932.
