CONTROL OF SYRIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 238, 21 July 1941, Page 6

CONTROL OF SYRIA

PRO-VICHY PRONOUNCEMENTS. GERMAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVE. INFLUENCE ON THE MOSLEMS.

(United Press Asspciation —Copyright.) (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, July 20. Thirteen hundred and men taken prisoner in the Syrian campaign reached Baalbeck from camps in the north of Syria. The first contin gent included Australians taken pri soner at Me-zze Merjiyun. The meft said they "were well treated but the food was indifferent. It is understood that about 20 officers taken to France .are being returned to Syria. Allied troops occupy all the towns of' Syria and Lebanon except Tripoli, which is reserved for the Vichy Army pending repatriation.

A notice has been published in th© newspapers inviting Frenchmen desii'ing to enrol with the Free French to report to Army headquarters. The “Daily Telegraph's” correspon* dent in Syria says that the publication in Beirut of statements by Marshal Petain and General Dentz (Vichy High Commissioner in Syria) provoked bitter comment. Marshal Petain said that France was about to suffer an eclipse in the Levant and General Dentz declared that the armistice terms would have been more favour 1 able but for the influence £f General De Gaulle’s supporters. Senior Vichyite officials about to hand over their jobs permitted the publication of the statements. Their action emphasises the danger of allowing Vichy supporters to remain in the country. The continued presence of anti-British persons may result in sapping the Allied authority, with a corresponding increase of fifth column activity. No longer is there any reason why General Dentz and his staff, who declared they will recognise only the authority of Vichy, should be allowed to remain in Syria. The Beirut correspondent of “The Times” declares that German military victories, recounted over the German radio, dizzied the Moslems. They are also momentarily* afraid to collaborate with the British following German propaganda that the Germans are returning to Syria in September and threatening drastic treatment of those helping the British.