Under the previous Emperor, John, the Protestant mission to the Falashas, which had established its headquarters at Jenda in Dembea province just north of Lake Tana, was obliged to operate under considerable difficulties. Flad was not allowed in the . country and had to be content with meetings on the frontier, where he saw some of the converts and gave them encouragement and guidance for furthering the work of the mission. With Menelik's accession there was some hope of improvement but, on the contrary, conditions became so difficult that in 1892 there was talk of closing down the mission. It struggled on and in 1908 the historian of the C.M.J. reported that:

. . . famine, war, bloodshed, imprisonment, ecclesiastical jealousy, civil strife, the Dervish invasion, the failure of the Italians have been potent hindrances, powerful enough to harass and impede but not to stop the work. Indeed, it has flourished beyond expectation and, since 1869, without the aid of any direct European guidance on the spot. In spite of all opposition and in spite of ignorance and want of freedom the Gospel has spread among the Falashas 1513 of whom have been baptized in the Abyssinian church through the agency of the Society and from 200 to 300 not in immediate connexion with it. (1)

One man's meat is another man's poison. The success claimed by the C.M.J. was, understandably, anathema to the Jewish organisations in Europe who were receiving reports of Falashas being forced to convert. Pressed by Joseph Halevy, whose visit to Abyssinia thirty years earlier had been sponsored by them, and influenced by the tales ofltalian Jewish officers returning from the war, the Alliance Israelite now decided to send another emissary to investigate the position. Their choice fell on a Dr A. Rapaport but he got no further than Cairo before the Alliance changed their mind and he was recalled. The nineteenth century drew to its close and no effective steps had been taken to aid this isolated outpost of the Jewish religion.

Halevy' s original report with its call for action failed to attract the attention it deserved. Perhaps because his story was so remarkable and so strange, the leaders of the Alliance themselves began to mistrust their representative. Some even went so far as to question

(1)Gidney, The History ef the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, p. 616.