UNREST REPORTED IN SYRIA

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23131, 21 September 1940, Page 13

UNREST REPORTED IN SYRIA

Resistance to Italian

Demands

SOLDIERS REFUSE TO HAND OVER EQUIPMENT

(ITKITSD PRESS ASSOCIATION" —COPYRIGHT-.1

(Received September 20, 11.30 p.m.)

LONDON, September 19.

The Cairo correspondent of “The Times” says more news of unrest comes from the stronghold of France’s Syrian Army.

Italian agents at three divisional headquarters were instructed to make an inventory of French Army equipment. Although this was the obvious prelude to the dismantling and seizure of guns, tanks, ammunition, lorries, and aeroplanes, the two senior French delegates on the Armistice Commission consented, but the junior officers and men are resisting.

French regulars at the chief training base are taking their rifles to their tents at night time and strangers have been ordered from the camp. Similar happenings occurred at a base where the Italians were trying to secure the modern Glenn-Martin bombers.

The crews of two French submarines at Beirut are stubbornly staying aboard, grimly awaiting the moment when they may be asked to come off.

Syrian soldiers at the camp of the Camel Corps near Damascus refused to give up their camels and ammunition. They are reported to have buried the ammunition in the mountains, setting a delicate and dangerous problem for the Italian agents endeavouring to rot the French Army from within.

The Italians fear resistance as well as sabotage.

The attitude of the French soldier can be summed up as: “We have the guns. What are you going to do about it?” The Syrians say: “France is only the Mandatory here. She has no right to hand us over to Italy.”

NOUMEA JOINS DE GAULLE

MOROCCO

GOVERNOR FORCED

TO RESIGN

AUSTRALIA’S INTEREST

IN STATUS

(Received September 20, 9.20 a.m.)

MELBOURNE, September 20.

Advice has been received by the Federal Government from Noumea that New Caledonia has declared itself for Free France and has linked up with General de Gaulle.

The temporary Governor appointed by the Vichy Government, General Denis, has resigned to make way for a Governor appointed by General de Gaulle. The Resident-General of the New Hebrides, who is the leader of the Free French in the South Seas, has taken control of the situation. Commenting on the announcement, the Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) said that the internal government of New Caledonia was a matter for its people, but Australia was naturally interested in developments there which meant a friendly French colony and the strengthening of the close economic and cultural ties already existing between Australia and New Caledonia. “We have extensive trade relations there, and we will continue to watch affairs with helpful and sympathetic interest,” said Mr Menzies. “We hope that as soon as possible there will be a measure of economic co-operation, not as a matter of hostility against anyone, but as a matter of mutual interest. New Caledonia produces much nickel and chrome ores, of which Australia has recently made substantial purchases.”

“INVASION WOULD

BE DANGEROUS ”

VIEWS OF SWEDISH JOURNALIST

ISSUE TO BE DECIDED

IN THE AIR

LONDON, September 19.

The military correspondent of a leading Stockholm newspaper states that a German invasion of Britain would be the most dangerous and most desperate enterprise ever undertaken in history, if it were undertaken before the British power in the air was broken. Britain’s air defences had so far been neither broken nor weakened. It was not certain, he saic whether Germany had yet thrown the whole of her air strength into the battle, although one German expert said recently that Germany had reached the top of her effort. The issue could bo decided in the air only if Germany could wreck British industry, including the aircraft industry, and if the wear and tear on British machines were greater than on German machines.

Meantime, Germany was continuing her air attack, leaving the question of invasion unanswered for the present. The writer added a warning that invasion could not be regarded as impossible during the late autumn, for storms did not rage every day. The invasion might happen sooner than people expected. They express the opinion that the Luftwaffe has failed to achieve the main purpose of the raids because its bombs have not disorganised London’s communications. Thus supplies and reinforcements can still be sent to areas where the Germans planned to invade.

The complete failure of the enemy raids to impair London’s food supplies, as claimed by the Minister for Food (Lord Woolton). is well borne out in

EXPECTANCY IN \ t

BRITISH OFFER MAY j BE ACCEPTED j 1 , .f i GROWING SYMPATHY FOR | DE GAULLE \

(Received September 20, 11.30 p.m.) ji tj LONDON. September 20. t Reports reaching Madrid from | Morocco indicate tense expectancy jj through French North Africa, where a ji decision to accept the offer of British j; protection is expected daily. [' The Madrid correspondent of the | “Daily Express” says that General | Verget, the newly-appointed French | Resident-General in North Africa, is I, having great difficulty in handling the | situation. i

There have been wholesale arrests of • army officers and civil servants, which li apparently have been carried out re- r luctantly in face of popular opposition }; and widespread sympathy for General de Gaulle. I

It is officially announced from the f‘ general headquarters of the free French r forces that the former commander of 1, the First Zouaves at Casablanca, previously commander of a sub-division i at Tetouan, has arrived in England and i placed himself at the disposal of Gen- i> eral de Gaulle.

The Foreign Minister of the Vichy Government (M. Baudouin) said that t Britain had been notified before the jsix French warships left the Mediter- it ranean on September 14 for Dakar. - The warships passed Gibraltar without a single gun being fired. Not the slight- £ est attempt was made to impede their •’ passage. •!! The mission of the warships, he said, ■> was the support and preservation of the ; French Empire against the British ef- ” fort to provoke dissidence. France • would employ all the force permissible under the armistice to assure the integrity of the Colonial Empire against provocations. He added that France would reach a military, political, and economic agreement with Japan, preserving French ■; sovereignty in ludo-China, but giving ; Japan privileges. He added that France ’ owed loyalty to her former enemies < besides the scrupulous execution of the armistice, which, had been drafted hon- -- ourably.

the reports made last night by two ■ American correspondents. i Mr John McVane, broadcasting from London on the National Broadcasting system, said: “One of the National Broadcasting observers came ” through Covent Garden and found it j crammed with every kind of fruit and vegetables you can imagine. There were boxes of Tasmanian apples, > South African grapefruit, and lettuce by the truck load, and many other perishable commodities which must v have been brought in during the night This does not mean that this big town * has not been badly battered in the last 24 hours. It is merely a reminder that London is a vast area which cannot be knocked out by a few bombers * in a few days or even weeks of constant raiding.” Mr H. R. Knickerbocker in a mes- , sage to New York wrote: “This sort of destruction is certainly not going r to win the war, and to-day, after touring the city’s principal markets, I can ’ testify that the German radio’s claim that the Luftwaffe is gradually starv- ; ing London is simply imbecile. If there is any shortage at Covent Garden, London’s biggest and most famous ii market, it is not visible to the naked eye, and it takes just as long now to 1thread one’s way through its lanes and alleys, piled mountain high with every » variety of food, as it ever did in peace time.”