The invasion of Ethiopia – often referred to as Abyssinia at the time – in October 1935 by Fascist Italy under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini was a major test of the League of Nations to which Ethiopia belonged. The failure of the League to protect one of its members was a major step in the decline of the League as a serious institution for the preservation of peace and a blow to the concept of collective security. The British Government and a sizeable segment of British public opinion were strong supporters of the League and a concentration of British naval forces in the Mediterranean resulted. As Malta was considered vulnerable to air attack, the majority of British naval forces were based at Alexandria. There was much talk of war should the League enact painful sanctions against Italy. Nevertheless, support of the League was not as strong as it seemed. The British Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare and his French counterpart Pierre Laval in December 1935 seemed ready to enter into an agreement with Mussolini that would have resulted in a partial dismemberment of Ethiopia, the so-called Hoare-Laval Pact. When news of this leaked out, there was great public indignation and Hoare was forced to resign, although in June 1936 he was back in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. Nevertheless the Hoare-Laval Pact was a preview of things to come. The League enacted sanctions against Italy but failed to enact those that would be truly effective or likely to provoke war. The French government, in theory an equally strong supporter of the League, was anxious to maintain good relations with Italy in the face of a resurgent Germany. The Fascist conquest continued unchecked and by late April 1936 the Italian army was closing in on Addis Ababa, the capital of landlocked Ethiopia. The question of the fate of Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia now became acute. At first the Emperor asked the British to ensure the safety of the Empress and his younger children and grandchildren but then extended the request for himself and a larger entourage [1, 4]. With the consent of the French government, the imperial party was to be evacuated in a British warship through Djibuti, the major port of neighbouring French Somaliland [5].