In accordance with the personally-expressed wish of Premier Benito Mussolini, the Jewish hero of the Ethiopian war, Lieut. Bruno Jesi, will soon leave for Ethiopia to launch the activities of a newly-formed Jewish corporation for the cultivation of oil-bearing plants. He will be accompanied by seven Jewish engineers and agricultural experts.
Lieutenant Jesi, who is the founder and director of the company, incorporated as the Compagnia Ethiopica Semioliosa, was recently awarded the rarely-bestowed Gold Medal brevet, held by only 50 living Italians, for extraordinary valor during the Ethiopian campaign, in which he lost a leg.
The company has as its principal purpose the organization of profitable agriculture in Ethiopia. The project found its inspiration when Lieut. Jesi wrote a personal letter to Premier Mussolini presenting his case as an Italian Jew who had given all he could, including his right leg, for his fatherland and now found himself deprived of the fundamental right of existing, under Italy’s anti-Semitic laws.
In response to the appeal, the Duce invited Jesi to organize a Jewish project for the development of the Empire, offering him every Government cooperation. An incorporated project with capitalization of 5,000,000 lire soon resulted. Lieut. Jesi visited Ethiopia with a technical commission to find territory best adapted to development. He chose three tracts, embracing 2,000 hectares in the vicinity of Cerear, 2,000 hectares near Bogadica in Italian Somaliland and 1,000 hectares around the village of Khora on the Addis Ababa-Jibuti railway, 100 miles from the Ethiopian capital.
On returning to Rome, this land was requested and was immediately ceded to the Jesi company under 99-year leases calling for rental of $1 annually in order to retain Government ownership, with option for renewal for another 99 years.
Lieut. Jesi plans first to take his seven engineers and a supply of tractors to the 1,000 hectare tract around Khora, where work will be commenced within a month. He intends eventually to produce olive oil, castor oil, arachic (peanut oil) and several other types of vegetable oil, besides a certain amount of wheat.
Jesi states that it will take about a year to complete organization on the first tract. With the benefit of the experience gained there he will then proceed with cultivation of the other two areas. Meanwhile, he hopes to expand the company’s capitalization to 30,000,000 lire. It is pointed out that the plan is not intended as a scheme for colonization of Jews. Labor will be recruited from among the natives, with a minimum number of supervisors and clerical employees brought from Italy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
