Wärqenäh's 1927 trip to Britain & USA

The 1927 trip to England and the USA, the 1929 & 1931 trips to England and the 1930 trip to India, all reveal Wärqenäh's broad global range. He had traveled widely throughout his life and knew a remarkable range of individuals in most parts of the world. All three trips involved using his lifelong collection of friends and contacts. His 1927 trip focused on diplomacy, which was also important in his other trips. Most, except for his 1930 trip to India, also had education at their center. During all of the trips he made a large number of purchases for his family or his various projects or for the Ethiopian government. Two trips, in 1927 to the USA and in 1930 to India, involved recruiting professionals to work in Ethiopia. With the Great Depression Wärqenäh and Täfäri both sought to lower their costs by recruiting African Americans from the USA and Christian Indians from South Asia.

In 1927 Ras Täfäri decided to send Wärqenäh to Britain and the United States on a combined diplomatic and educational mission. Characteristically, as with Wärqenäh's 1924 trip to Britain, personal and national priorities were intertwined. Diplomatically Täfäri skillfully used Wärqenäh to further drive a wedge between England and Italy by reaching out to the United States to find an engineering company to build a dam or rather a barrage, across the Nile at Lake Tana. He also asked him to purchase arms in the USA.