Felix Cole

Felix Cole (1887 – 1969) was an American diplomat. His postings in the foreign service included ambassadorships to Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

Following the retirement of John K. Caldwell in 1945, Cole was selected as his replacement. Emperor Haile Selassie was concerned that Cole had spent a great deal of his career in colonial territories, and through the Ethiopian ambassador to the United States, Blatta Ephrem Tewelde Medhen, voiced his objection at least twice. On presenting the Emperor's objection for the last time, according to John Spencer, the acting Secretary of State Joseph C. Grew "was visibly angered. Tossing his head, he declared that he found that objection ridiculous and that if we persisted, the United States would not be represented in Ethiopia."^[1]

The Ethiopian fears proved to be accurate soon after Cole arrived in Ethiopia October 1945. At the Potsdam Conference, the United States, Great Britain, and Soviet Union had proclaimed their intent "to seize German government property wherever it was found, even though on the territory of friendly states." Cole then took the initiative, over the protests of the Ethiopian government, of seizing the official archives of the German legation in Addis Ababa. Spencer observes, "His arrogance confirmed in the minds of the Ethiopian officials the view that the minister still held to his colonialist outlook." He was assisted in this endeavor by the caretaker of the German legation, whom "to rub salt in Ethiopia's wounds" he proceeded to appoint an official of the legation with diplomatic privileges. The Ethiopian government immediately declared the former caretaker persona non grata, an act Ambassador Cole ignored. In 1947 the former caretaker was murdered in a legation car; in a footnote to his memoirs Spencer "cannot dismiss the suspicion that this assassination had been planned with the approval and the complicity of the Imperial Guard", although he admits the facts both then and later "are extremely sketchy".^[2]

Cole's final misstep came when he wore what the Ethiopians felt was inappropriate dress, which Emperor Haile Selassie viewed as a deliberate and public insult. As Spencer explains, "As elsewhere in Africa, great importance was attached to formal attire at ceremonies. At the dedication by His Majesty of a monument in the center of the city, a ceremony attended by all in the diplomatic corps, the American ministers appeared in a business suit, side by side with the other diplomats who were all attired in striped pants and top hats."^[3] Cole was subsequently recalled before the Ethiopian government could declare him persona non grata.^[4]

References

1. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984), p. 166. Spencer lists this as one of two incidents at the time which resulted in "anger and humiliation" for the Ethiopian government. (p. 165f)
2. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay, p. 168 and note
3. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay, pp. 168f
4. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay, p. 166