Just another voice crying in the wilderness of the Abyssinian bureaucracy

1926

An expedition to Egypt should have been next in turn, but endless attempts to obtain a visa did not produce any positive results. In spite of all his influence the banker, Mossar, ^[1] was unable to obtain the necessary permission for me; and even the assistance given by Kurdali, the president of the Arabian Academy of Sciences in Damascus, led nowhere. The petitions of the greatest agronomists in England, Daniel Hall and John Russell, ^[2] did not help either.

I obtained rather courteous answers to my requests for a visa from Alexandria, signed by an English colonel who managed the admittance of foreigners, stating that, unfortunately, owing to the circumstances prevailing at present, it was impossible to allow me entry. My suggestion to have police escort me at my cost during my short expedition to the agricultural areas of Egypt was not accepted either. It was necessary to gather seeds in Egypt at any cost. So I engaged an intelligent Italian student, Gudzoni, to be my coworker. I prepared and outfitted him with the necessary material such as an aneroid barometer and means for collecting; told him to assemble all literature necessary; and sent him off to Egypt. Gudzoni carried out his mission conscientiously, while following the itinerary agreed upon through all the agricultural areas as far as to the Aswan dam in upper Egypt.

All attention was now directed toward obtaining visas for entering Abyssinia [now Ethiopia] and Eritrea. Preliminary discussions in Paris were not crowned with success. Madame de Vilmorin promised to write a letter to the French envoy in Addis Ababa which, as I was to learn later on, she did with the kindness typical of her. The difficulties were increased owing to the fact that at that time Abyssinia had no diplomatic representatives in Europe. Attempts to cable or write from different countries to the government of Abyssinia were also futile. My friend, the American agronomist Dr. Harland, ^[3] who had visited Abyssinia in 1923 and was pleased with the cheerful welcome of its ruler, tried on his part to help me from Washington, but apparently this, too, was just another voice crying in the wilderness of the Abyssinian bureaucracy. It began to look as though I would have to give up the utopian idea of getting into Abyssinia. But I could never reconcile myself to that, since according to all my theoretical hypotheses East Africa should be characterized by a special, cultivated flora, still unexplored and known only through scraps of floristic investigations.

The International Agricultural Institute in Rome, to which I was advised to turn, helped me obtain a visa to Eritrea, [then] an Italian colony, but stated that dealings with Abyssinia were beyond its capability. However, this was at least something and gave me a chance. In consideration of the difficulty of the situation, I decided to try the alternative of visiting Eritrea, situated alongside Abyssinia and from there attempt, if an opportunity presented itself, to penetrate into Abyssinia, although bitter experiences had shown that visa problems are most easily solved in major centres.

Notes:

1. He was being treated at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and his brother was a prominent agronomist, see this post. [↩]
2. Sir Edward John Russell, Director of Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1912 to 1943. [↩]
3. Harry V. Harlan. [↩]