 Despite Ethiopian distaste for the agreement, both the Emperor and his innermost group of Ministers were reluctant to actually submit the notice required to end the agreement.A set of proposals for a new agreement submitted to the British at the beginning of 1944 was summarily rejected.As John Spencer, an American advisor to Ethiopia in international law during this period, explains, "They feared retaliation in the form of a re-occupation of the province of Tigré, south of Eritrea, and of Sidamo and Gemu Gofa bordering on Kenya, and just possibly other areas in the west such as the provinces of Wollega and Illubabor.