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also served as director of government purchasing and as an adviser to the
Ethiopian foreign ministry. It was in this capacity that he went to Germany
in 1935 on a secret mission to buy arms for use against the Italian invaders
of Ethiopia. Because Hitler wished to see Mussolini thoroughly preoccu-
pied with the Horn of Africa and thereby distracted from meddling in
German interests, the Nazis were happy to stiffen Ethiopian proxy resis-
tance to the Italians. Consequently, Germany responded positively to the
requests for armaments made by Hall. Without Mussolini’s knowledge,
Germany then supplied Haile Selassie’s army with three aeroplanes, over
60 cannon, 10,000 Mauser rifles, and a great deal of ammunition.
Returning to his homeland during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, Hall
lived in Palestine from 1936 to 1941.
Moving to Iraq in early 1941, it is difficult to see how David Hall, by
then 65 years of age and from a devout Christian family with a long his-
tory of missionary service among the Jews of Palestine, could have com-
promised with the odious ex-Mufti when he encountered him and his
Palestinian–Arab retinue in Baghdad, yet he did. More especially, working
in radio broadcasting, Hall must have been confronted at first hand with
al-Husayni’s hateful antisemitic propaganda, which he must have found
disagreeable. However, CICI had reason to believe that Hall had worked
for Fritz Grobba in May 1941, translating the news from English into
German for rebroadcasting. A couple of months later, it was reported to
CICI that Hall was trying to obtain permission to travel to Turkey in
order to avoid British reprisals for having broadcast anti-British propa-
ganda during the May debacle. Since his wife and children were reported
to be living in Germany at this time, it is likely that the Reich was his ulti-
mate destination. However, according to a later MOFA amendment, Hall
was expected to leave Iraq for Addis Ababa on 17 December 1941,
diverted perhaps by MI6. CICI therefore suggested that he be kept under
the closest supervision, particularly when he reached Ethiopia. Beyond
this, there are no further MOFA amendments concerning Hall. However,
the historical record shows that, on his return to Ethiopia, he worked tire-
lessly on the nation’s behalf well into his 80s, serving as an adviser to the
emperor and paying the entire cost of constructing a synagogue in Addis
Ababa. Perhaps this was Hall’s revenge on the Mufti and the clearest evi-
dence that, despite CICI’s misgivings, he may have been a German nation-
alist but was never a Nazi and certainly not antisemitic.^30
In May 1942, Chokra Wood was asked by GHQ India, whose security
commitments were already heavy, to prevent the entry into India from
THE MOON PALACE