MARTIAL LAW AFTER CRISIS InLEBANON

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 269, 12 November 1943, Page 3

MARTIAL LAW AFTER CRISIS InLEBANON

MIMSTERS_ARRESTED De Gaullist Troops Reported In Beirut N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Nov. 11. The Lebanon Chamber of Deputies has been dissolved, martial law has been proclaimed and the Premier, Riad el Solh. the President. Alfrea Nakkache, and two other Lebanese Ministers have been arrested and taken to an unknown destination. This is reported by Reuters correspondent in Cairo. According to Berlin radio, de Gaullist troops nave occupied Beirut, on the Mediterranean coast in Syria, and Reuters correspondent in Beirut says considerable violence occurred in' the streets of the city.

These developments followed the Lebanon Parliament's adoption of a bill modifying the Lebanese Constitution. The French Committee of National Liberation opposed the bill, stating that it would refuse to recognise it ■as it was a one-sided action. The crisis is due to a difference of interpretation of the status of Lebanon's independence. Reuters correspondent in Cairo says Senegalese troops, who are reported to be using considerable violence, broke into the President's house at 4 a.m. to-day and removed him. The French High Commissioner, ; n a broadcast from Beirut, later this morning, denounced what he called, "the plot against France." The newspaper Almisi stated that the High Commissioner ordered Senegalese troops to patrol the streets and occupy all strategic points in Beirut and other cities. It adds: "A general strike was threatened during the past few days, but, thanks to the intervention of the Lebanese Premier, work is proceeding normally at present." A cablegram dispatched frem Cairo on Wednesday stated that an internal crisis had arisen in Lebanon as a result of the Chamber of Deputies voting to amend the constitution by removing all clauses incompatible with Lebanese sovereignty and independence.