Harlem's Columbus

First class on the Cunard White Star's S. S. Aquitania and fresh from a costly Thameside London hotel that ebullient Negro romanticist Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, the Richard Halliburton of his race, last week got home to Harlem from one more Glorious Adventure. With him he brought a 68-page hand-written manuscript titled, "Why I Resigned from the Abyssinian Army."

His elegant haberdashery and expensive shipboard accommodations Negro Julian explained by saying that an Englishwoman has given him $60,000.

Famed as Harlem's pioneer in Ethiopia long before there was any war, "Colonel" Julian first came inescapably to the Emperor's attention by alighting with a devastating crash almost on top of His Majesty in what was then Ethiopia's only airplane (TIME, Nov. 10, 1930). During the current struggle, Addis Ababa has seen Harlem's "Black Eagle" flapping about in Sam Browne belt and natty uniform but denied a commission in Ethiopia's Imperial Air Force. He was several times kindly received by Haile Selassie, once to deny hotly that Italians had hired him to assassinate the Emperor.

"The Emperor is still my friend," cried Julian last week, "but as for the other Ethiopians--Bah! You may say that I have come to the unanimous conclusion that Ethiopia does not need or deserve help."

"Ethiopians do not consider themselves Negroes," continued Negro Julian, adjusting his Ascot and eyeing the crease in his Savile Row pearl-striped trousers. "American Negroes should keep out of international affairs! I saw Ethiopian soldiers tortured and mutilated because they had stolen a bit of grain or refused to fight. It was not only brutality by the Ethiopians toward Italian prisoners, but toward men, women and children of their own race. I saw children who had stolen a little bread, with hands chained to their feet. I have not written a book, I have written an epistle. Don't call me the Self-Styled Black Eagle of Harlem--just call me the Black Eagle."

"Is it true that you were in a romance with the Emperor's daughter?" chirped a grinning newshawk. Cried delighted Julian, "Christopher Columbus! Such rumors about me--rumors, rumors, rumors!"

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