The Times 14 July 2002

ETHIOPIA is appealing to the Queen to intervene in a dispute with a Scottish regiment over a ceremonial drum "looted" by British troops more than 130 years ago.

The drum, believed to date back to the 16th century, was among the spoils of the 1868 Magdala campaign, a raid to free British missionaries who had been kidnapped by Theodore III, the Ethiopian emperor.

The loot, which included solid gold crowns, wooden tablets and manuscripts, was described as the Ethiopian equivalent of the crown jewels and was auctioned to soldiers and then sold or given to various institutions, including the British Museum and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

Now the Ethiopian government has launched a diplomatic counterattack to have it returned. It is to ask the Queen, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, one of the regiments involved, to help.

The drum had symbolic importance in Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was then called. Historians say it was beaten on ceremonial occasions, when the emperor launched campaigns or appointed ministers.

It is believed to have been taken after British troops stormed his mountain fortress in northern Ethiopia to rescue the missionaries.
Theodore committed suicide rather than allow himself to be captured.

Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Napier, commander of the British forces at Magdala, ordered the drum to be divided into three portions and presented to the regiments involved in the campaign: the Dragoons, the King's Own Royal Borderers and the Duke of Wellington's regiment.

The Ethiopian bid is being supported by the Scottish Episcopal church, which earlier this year returned an ancient tablet depicting the Ark of the Covenant taken from Magdala and found in the cupboard of an Edinburgh church. Its return was greeted with street celebrations in Ethiopia.

The Rev John McLuckie, of St John's Episcopal church in Edinburgh, has written to Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Binks, the Dragoons' regimental secretary, on behalf of Addis Ababa, asking him to return their portion of the drum as an "act of friendship, generosity and goodwill". However, the regiment regards it as a treasured battle trophy and a vital part of its own history.

Binks said: "To the military, regimental tradition is all important. But this request raises wider questions. "The deputy colonel-in-chief of the regiment is the Duke of Kent and the colonel-in-chief is the Queen. It may be that in due course, if the present regiment colonel feels he isn't empowered to answer the question, he will refer it to a higher authority."

A spokesman for the Ethiopian embassy in London said the country would lobby the Queen and "any other institution" for the return of the drum and other items taken from Magdala.

"This drum is part of our history," he said. "We call upon all institutions and all individuals in possession of materials taken in looting from Magdala to return these objects because that is the right thing to do. That includes the Queen."

McLuckie, chairman of the Association for the Return of the Magdala Ethiopian Treasures, is to write to the two other regiments asking them to return their sections.

The Scottish regiment's portion, believed to be the top part of the drum, is displayed in the officers' mess in Germany, where the regiment is stationed. Other parts of the drum are in Cyprus, where the King's Own Royal Borders are stationed, and with the Duke of Wellington regiment, also in Germany.

Dr Richard Pankhurst, founder of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, based at Addis Ababa University, said: "This drum was taken by plunder. We are now in a more civilised epoch and it should be returned to its rightful place. It means very little to the British Army but a great deal to the people of Ethiopia."

Earlier this year the British Museum rejected calls to return to Ethiopia artefacts taken from Magdala. The museum, which does not display many of the articles because they are so sacred, said an act of parliament in 1753 banned it from giving away any object in its collection unless it had a duplicate.