ITALIANS DUE IN SYRIA

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23111, 29 August 1940, Page 7

ITALIANS DUE IN SYRIA

Anti-British Moves Expected EFFORT TO STIR UP ARABS (CMTTED TEESB ASSOCIATION— COPTIUGHT.) (Received August 28, 10 p.m.) LONDON, August 28. Tim Cairo correspondent of "The Times" says the Italian armistice commission is expected to arrive in Beirut at any moment with the , Axis demands against Syria. The Syrian authorities, it is believed, will receive them satisfactorily because they are distinctly unfriendly towards Britain. The Syrian-Palestine border has remained strictly closed from the Syrian side, except for through traffic to: Turkey, hut British subjects remain in danger of arrest. The British Consul-General (Mr G T. Havard) was forced to leave Beirut to take up residence at Aley, a tourist resort, in Lebanon, presumably to prevent him from observing developments in Beirut or exerting any influence on the population. The Italian commission will no A«ro\A slrive WMtvly to stir up. the Syrian Arabs against Britain with bribes and intrigue. FOREIGN AGENTS IN U.S.

CHARGES AGAINST CONGRESSMEN SUPPORT OF SUBVERSIVE ORGANISATIONS (Received August 28, 8 p.m.) NEW YORK. August 27. Mr Martin Dies, chairma.. of the Congress Committee on Un-American Activities, announced that he would ask Mr Roosevelt to help oust certain key officials in the Government service who, it is alleged, supported subversive organisations. Ho said he was forwarding to Mr Roosevelt the names of officials who were contributing money and had supported groups finder the direct or indirect control of foreign Governments. He had evidence that a few Congressmen and one Senator had used material supplied by the Nazis. Mr Dies is introducing a bill m the House of Representatives to outlaw subversive organisations. AUCKLAND PILOT WINS D.F.C. EIGHT NAZI AIRCRAFT SHOT DOWN (linll'isn OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, August 27. / Royal Air Force awards include the D.F.C. to Pilot Officer J. A. A. Gibson, of Auckland. The citation stales: ‘‘While patrolling over Dover he engaged and destroyed a Junkers and was afterwards himself shot down. Although his aircraft was in flames, he- steered away from Folkestone, not abandoning his aircraft until it had descended to 1000 feet. He has now destroyed eight enemy aeroplanes.” , , The D S.C. lias been awarded to Squadron; Leader M, Crossley, of Warwickshire', who has destroyed 18 enemy aeroplanes and possibly another five. He won the D.F.C. for gallantry in citation for Squadron Leader Crossley’s decoration states: He has flown almost continuously since the start of the war and since May he has participated in engagements over Holland, Belgium, and France, including patrols over Dunkirk and St. Valery during the evacuation operations. Earlier this month he destroyed two Junkers 88’s over. Portsmouth and assisted in the destruction of another over Croydon. During the, latter engagement he encountered another Junkers 88, and, having expended all his ammunition, he acted as an above guard until two of his section finally destroyed it. The next day he destroyed three enemy aircraft.” Squadron Leader Crossley, who was ■born in 1912, was educated at Eton and Chelsea College, and was awarded the D.F.C. in June for gallantry. He sighted a patrol of 17 Heinkel Ill’s and as a result of the engagement s'even enemy bombers were destroyed, of which he brought down two. Pilot Officer John Albert Axel Gibson is a son of Mrs Violet Gibson, of Auckland, and celebrated his twentyfourth birthday last Saturday, says a Press Association message from Auckland. Born at Brighton, England, he was brought to New Zealand when he was four, and spent most of his life in Auckland. He began his education at the Normal School, and later spent three years at the Auckland Grammar School and two years at the New Plymouth Boys’ High School. At New Plymouth he proved successful at many sports, and was champion rifle shot oi the school. In 1988 Pilot Officer Gibson loft New Zealand on a short service commission in the Royal Air Force. Since the war began he has been stationed in many parts of England, and took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He was married on October 24 last year to Miss Ethel Forfnby, a sister of George Formby, the well-known English comedian. British Submarine Lost.—The submarine Spearfish, announces the Admiralty, is considerably overdue, and must be considered lost. She was a vessel of 670 tons, and carried a normal complement of 40.—Rugby, August 27. Trotsky Cremated—The body of M. Leon Trotsky was cremated in the civil cemetery at Mexico City in the presence of his wife. The ashes were stored in an urn marked simply “Leon Trotsky.”—Mexico City, August 28.