SUPPORT ALLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1940, Page 10

SUPPORT ALLIES.

NEAR EAST PEOPLES.

M 0 LOVE FOR DICTATORS.

SOLIDARITY OF OUTLOOK.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

DUNEDIN, this day.

Whatever development® may occur in ■fche rapidly-changing international situation, it appears certain that unqualified support for the Allies will be forthcoming from the peoples of the Near East, said the Rev. Father Michael Bardouil, secretary to the Catholic Melkite Metropolitan of Beirut, Mount Lebanon. There is .no ' love among Syrians or Arabs for 'the ideologies of modern Europe. "The people are strongly opposed," said Father Bardouil, "and they are very far from being ready to assimilate the doctrines of Nazi Germany or Soviet Ruseia. They have great respect * for the democratic way of living." The solidarity of outlook between the Mohammedan and Christian, between the Arab and the Jew, with the coming of the war was a remarkable thing. All differences had been buried and a united front presented to the one possible danger. There had been occasional friction between the Syrians and the French administration of later years, but that was now forgotten, just as the bickering between Jew and Arab in Palestine had been shelved. Father Bardouil wa*> inclined to doubt that the Soviet would get very far. Her stand against Finland could not impress anyone as regards military strength, and a doughty opponent like Turkey (which country would be allied with Caucasia, Iran and Afghanistan) might well soon dispose of Russia as a serious menace. Certainly Russia had an air arm, which the Near East lacked, but that alone was not enough to ensure success.