NEGOTIATIONS IN LEBANON

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24112, 23 November 1943, Page 5

NEGOTIATIONS IN LEBANON

MINISTERS RELEASED FROM PRISON

PRESIDENT REINSTATED LONDON. Nov. 21. The Lebanese President CM. Alfred Nakkache) has been reinstated and the imprisoned Ministers have been released. A communique issued by the French Committee of National Liberation says; “General Catroux’s proposal for the reinstatement of the Lebanese President has been adopted and the Lebanese Ministers have been liberated. General Jean Helleu, the French delegate in Lebanon, has been requested to proceed to Algiers. Complete order reigns in Lebanon.” The committee also affirmed its decision to enter into negotiations with the Government of the Syrian Republic—negotiations which were described as necessary to reconcile the position of France as the mandatory Power with the independent regime which she promised to the mandated territories of the Middle East in the proclamation of 1941. It was announced that as soon as constitutional order was again established in Lebanon negotiations would be opened with the Beirut Government. After the issue of the French communique, the Commissioner for Information (M. Henri Bonnet) made the following statement: “We think that the decisions should satisfy all parties and that they will lead to a settlement from the local and Allied viewpoints. We regard the committee’s decisions as a satisfactory preliminary solution leading to a final broad settlement.” , Asked whether General Helleu’s programme would be proceeded with, M. Bonnet replied: “Surely.” He added that no new general.election would be held. The President would choose the new Ministers.

M. Bonnet said, emphatically, that the committee’s solution was not due to outside pressure. It was hoped that the decisions had satisfied .the British.

“The Times” says that in taking the preliminary steps to end the crisis, the Lebanon National Committee “acted with sagacity and statesmanship. There is now a fair prospect of a return to negotiation on a basis that shall satisfy the reasonable claims and expectations of Lebanon in accordance with the pledges already given." The Cairo correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency reported that the Lebanese Parliament met secretly on Saturday night and decided to wait 24 hours for the release of the arrested Ministers, after which, if the leaders were not released, it would take action against the French. The Algiers radio quoted General Catroux in a statement made in Beirut as saying that in order to end the crisis.the Lebanese would have to make concessions as well as the French. , , The British Algiers correspondent of the United Press says that General Catroux was believed to have recommended the replacement of General Helleu, who ordered the Lebanon arrests.

DISTURBANCES IN PALESTINE

HEBREW NEWSPAPERS

SUSPENDED

POLICE AND MOB CLASH IN TEL-AVIV

(Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON. Nov. 22. “Eleven British police and 21 Jewish residents were injured in weekend clashes in Tel-Aviv resulting from demonstrations against the suspension of Hebrew newspapers and from protest meetings on the Lebanese crisis,’ reports the British United Press correspondent in Tel-Aviv. "The police drew batons to disperse a mob which was attacking the Government offices and the Jewish guards. . Eight civilians were injured in baton charges made after mob attacks on the police. Stones hurled by the mob injured ■ seven policemen. The windows of Government offices were broken and three rooms set on fire by boys who threw lighted petrol-soaked bags into the buildings. A correspondent of Reuter m Jerusalem says that the general strike in Lebanon is reported to be continuing in all towns. The strike has now lasted 12 days.

GREEK PATRIOTS

AID JEWS

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON. Nov. 21. Greek patriots hid nearly 12,000 Jews living in Athens to prevent the Germans deporting them to Poland. This is revealed by Jewish refugees who have arrived in Istanbul after having been smuggled out of Greece. On October 25, the German military governc- of Athens ordered the Chief Rabbi to prepare a complete list, with addresses, of 12.000 Jews in the capital. He indicated that this wag, a preliminary step towards the deportation of the entire Jewish population to Poland. While he was preparing the list the Chief Raljbi revealed the German order to Greek friends who made contact with the head of the underground patriot organisation. The night before the list was ready a small party of Greeks broke into the Rabbi’s home, burned the list, and took the Rabbi to a mountain village for safety. On October 31 the German governor published an order instructing all Jews to report by November 14. By that date only 268 of the 12,000 had reported. The rest had been hidden in the homes of Greek Christians, in spite of a German threat of the death penalty for harbouring Jews. One Jew who has reached Istanbul told the “Daily Express” correspondent there that after he had been hidden for two days he was taken at night to a remote village. Here he was hidden with 16 other Jews, and the next night they were all taken to an island controlled by patriots and shipped in small coastal boats to Turkey, Other Jews were being smuggled out of Greece the same way. ,