NEAR EAST

Evening Post, Issue 25, 30 January 1935, Page 21

NEAR EAST

CHANGING CONDITIONS

WESTERN INFLUENCE

-VANISHED GLOKIES

Syria is oneof the most convincing testimonials- to the theory that civilisation moves westward. The land of those intrepid- navigators, the Phoenicians, known'in the Bible' as Canaanites, is now a French .possession sleeping about its ruins of a vanished glory, a glorythat vanished with' the advent of Alexander the Great, states a Writer in the "Christian Science Monitor." .

Even, the' famous eedars of Lebanon can only be found here and there, mere reminders of the foicsts out of which Solomon's Temple was-Built. The strip extending south, from Tripoli to Tyie and' Haif^, the Jaffa of the Crusades, is rich in histbiy. The houses." are built as~ they were two thousand1 years ago, with the possible addition of a cement roof in place of the old clay and plaster. The shutters are about the s>amc blue as when ■galleys swept befoie them instead of liners.

Teellow stone •fs the usual building material sometimes freshly hewn but often not." JPlat roofs are still the rule, .although. th.o tiled/gable is. encroaching 'm the Europeanised sections' and reduces the heat by allowing an air space between the^roof proper and the ceiling of the room beneath.

This is Syria, or Antiochia, err Phonecia or Canaan —what you will, for each fresh invader has: "given it a new name- But Syria seems to Be the one that has prevailed through all changes and it is still the name today. | ALEPPO GUARDS CHARM

Tie principal towns with the exception of Damascus and. Aleppo lie along the coast. Aleppo is the largest city in. Syria, and poihaps the least Europeanised. High above the city is tho Cracqtre des< Chevaliers showing, that although Aleppo is still th& least westernised of the larger cities of Syria it was the first over which the red cross | was flown.by tho Crusaders. ' ATeppO' is distinguished amoßg castdrn cities si's being perlvapsf th3 only one where bargaining for articles in the 'bazaar is not ethical. Strange- though ( it,may appear, tho^storekceper is a much better philosopher than he is business nan. Be has not been brought np on: the jaded luxury trade that always follows the advent of the tourist. 'He says "If Allah wills, that the 'effendi' should buy, he will," thcicforc roguery is at a discount. On the- road between Tripoli and Beirut are to bp found" flic Dog-River [inscriptions. On-the cliff by the load !caeh.-con.quejfiiig 'general has inscribed rhia name from the time <}£ Senacluwib, the-Assyrian, tcAllertby during the last war. There have- been few wairs of world1 importance- in which Syria lias not figured. , BEIETJT CFAY. Beirut is a very gay city. For a few hundred yards along the ocean front, one might easily imagine oneself in Kice or Cannes. B'eirut is prevented 'from assuming an important position 'as- a resort almost entirely by tie humidity of its climate. If one takes the old road up to the jresorts of Alley and Sliemian, one passes the "White City" of Cleopatra, now called Swaifet. It was here that she came from Egypt to- meet Anthony. We passed along- the Sidon Road by i'innumerable rock-hewn vaults from I Greco-Koman times that had' long since been ransacked.for any treasure they might contain. Along tho way we saw two gipsies with a tiained bear and a baboon. For few piasters they put on their show;

After we had left the gipsies wo passed stacks of mulb&vry trunks and upon asking1 why they were being cut down and1 stacked- to rot or be- sold as firewood w^' were- told, that thle- former silk industry, which had been; one «f tire principal trades' of Syria, Had been unable to compete with cheap rayon and Japanese competition. StbON BY THE SEA. * Also along the way we noticed countless ruined and half-iuined houses,' which were mute witnesses to the tex,rific suffering .which prevailed here duTinjy the \Vorld War. The war needs no memorial in. fSyrja. After a-couglo of. hours' driving, we reaehed Sidon,-the city ao roundly condemned by Jereiwiah. Although there, is still 'a city on 'the • site ,of old 'Sidon, the fate-predicted has come to paas. Gone are tho north and south harbour filled with ships from all parts of the jvo-rld. la their place, lie moowjd a few/ fishing smacks. Business is slow in,.mod<s!n'Sid«n, and the merchants are no longer the princes and navigators who' were responsible for the transference of tho fleets of Persian despots in safety to Greece. Tho simple fishermen in modern Sidon are not navigators after tho manner of ' those who, sponsored by an Egyptian Pharaoh, sailed completely around Africa 600 years BiC, who sailed the western ocean and brought

gold from Ophir. Tho city of Jezebel is fallen and the altars Of Baal have not smoked for hundreds of yeais. In the- haibour of SidOn there- is a reef which legend says is tho dragon that was about to devour Andromeda when Perseus appeared and allowed it to see the head of Medusa* whereupon it was turned to stone, and there it lies today with its head toward Sidon.

---CRUSADERS' CASTLES. It does not require much imagination to see they shape, especially from, the hills behind the, city. Also in. the harbour, with tho former bridge by which it was. joined to the land, decaying into the water, is the sea' casllo of the Crusaders. There is another Crusaders' castle built on a MIL .in.'the middle of the city. The stones .with which they were built are of course Greet and Roman, carried by boat from ruined cities further down the coast. If Sidon is a. sad sight to anyone acquainted with its history, how much more so. is Tyre- • When Alexander came conquering through Syria, Sidon surrendered, but Tyro refused' —because Alexander wished to worship in the temple there, it is said. The great mole by which Alexander was finally ablo to conquer thu city still exists, although now the constant washing of the sands has mado it solid land, and Tyro is no longer an island as it was then, but a- peninsula. It has been said that yon can always tell by the position of a city whether its' 'inhabitants considered the sea a friend'or an. enemy. Rome was built several miles from the sea, as. was Athens," because Iho sea. was believed a vulnerable . point of. attack, , but Tyre- and Sidon were built right out i into the sea because they were the "owneTa" of the sea.. ' HELLENIC RUIN'S. Baalbek contains some of the moat beautiful Hellenic ruins in the world, rivalling; the Acropolis at Athens, but ono has to overlook at the moment railroad lines and steam shovels that are being used for further excavation. From Baalbek, whether one goe3 by train or by car1, there- is a long dreary rido across the dusty plain and through barren .mountains , until suddenly like the. scent 'of a "fax-ote Edek

the road'meets the rivers of.Damascus, •which cdoi.tbVair and! pe'rfurne-it'with the fragrant greenery of their banks. Between its' rivers lies the " city ot Shem,, Damascus. . . ;, , "'■■•. .'. The uprising several, years ago of :the Druses has led/the. French, to make sura that ,it should uot reoccur. Damascus- ;is filled' with ; soldiersFrench, Syrian, Moorish;- and even Senegalese negroes. The roof of the"Street Called Straight," which is made of currugated iron, is riddled with'bullet holes made by the defenders- and attackers.,when a- third, of, Damascus was burned. In order to insure safety much of the quaint old parts of the -city have been taken" away, althoughthe best mosques and the-tombs of the1 'Omayads' are still to be seen. . AMERICAN SCHOOLS. As in most Near Eastern countries, American schools are fo be.--found,; notably ,th& American University in Beirut and, the American boys' and .girls!-schools-in. Sidon., The. American University ,in Beirut is very extensive/and is open to Syrians and foreigners alike, although the number of Americans- attending-as students-is comparatively small. The Beirut Mission dates from the middle of the last, century, and only survived the financial difficulties of the -American Civil War through the assistance of British funds.. ....-...■-

Even tho best-informed observers hesitato to prognosticate the future of Syria. Just as for 5000 years it has had a stormy but fascinating history, it is highly probable that the next 5000 years will be equally colourful. It was tho centre of trado under the Phoenicians, but lost it under the later Romans, to regain it'with tho Arabian, conquest. Then trado was lost again! until its revival with the Crusades. After the -Crusades its trade began todisappear, since the eastern tiade routes had found new paths.

Now it is once more assuming an important position since the advent of the motor-car with easy desert transportation, while the pipe line from the oil wells of Irak has been pushed through to Tripoli and Haifa. The completion of the Bagdad-Berlin Railway would further increase the economic significance of Syria, as it would permit Persian trade to pass through Aleppo and Tripoli to the sea. The people have been calLd the most acuto traders in the East. This quality has survived the 3000 years of their trading history, and is an asset for the future.

In""the q-ißantinie the Canaanites may be'seen by any reasonably ad/enturous traveller as they. blow, the übiquitous horns of-.their, modern—if antiquatedr—; motor-cars, in the streets of Tyre and' Sidon. . . , .