MORE TENSION: SYRIA AND TRANSJORDAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1949, Page 5

MORE TENSION: SYRIA AND TRANSJORDAN

(Rec 1 p.m.) DAMASCUS, April 26. The frontier between Syria and Transjordan is to be closed and recruitment for the Syrian army is to be stepped up in response to Transjordan measures, Colonel Husru Zaim, Syrian Premier and command-er-in-chief, announced today. “It seems that my unexpected visit to King Farouk worried certain Arab countries, who were under the false impression that I undertook the coup in Syria to afford them a new crown,” Colonel Zaim said. These people are dreaming when they think that they can dominate Syria by pressure and conspiracy. They don’t seem to know that we do not heed their threats or that our army, which is quickly becoming the second in the Middle East, next only to Turkey’s, will stop and crush any aggression against Syria.” Three Palestine Arabs and one Transjordanian were sentenced to death today in Amman by the Transjordan Criminal Assize Court on charges of planting mines on the road between Amman, the Transjordan capital, and Jericho, over which King Abdullah was expected to travel last month. Two Syrians and two Palestine Arabs were sentenced to life imprisonment in their absence. Conspiracy charges against six other Palestine Arabs were dismissed. One of the Syrians, Colonel Mahmud Hindi, was described as inspect-or-general of the gendarmerie. The other Syrian was also said to hold high rank in the Syrian police. The accused had admitted going to Amman with intent to kill King Abdullah. The Palestinians were described as members of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee. Earlier the magistrate dismissed, for lack of evidence, a charge of conspiracy against Shukry Bey el Kouatly, former President of Syria and Haj Amin Husseini, president of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee. .