The movement sought to split off from Abyssinia and become a mandate of the United Kingdom, but gained no international recognition.

Captain Esme Nourse Erskine was the British Consul at Gore from 1928 to 1936.

[1] During the Italian invasion 1935-1936, Erskine helped the Western Oromo Confederation chiefs with their application, which he probably drafted, to the League of Nations, in which Oromo chiefs asked “to be placed under a British mandate … until we achieve self government”.

He forwarded the applications to the British Foreign Office.

[2] The British government declined to forward these applications to the League of Nations.