TENSION IN SYRIA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20385, 23 October 1940, Page 5

TENSION IN SYRIA

HARSH ITALIAN DEMANDS SPYING BY CONSULS LONDON, Sept. 10. New and harsher demands delivered by members of the Italian Armistice Commission to the French leaders in Syria threaten to cause a bitter quarrel between the two nations’ representatives. The Italians, led by a general, two colonels, and a group of former Consuls, arc so far exceeding their original demands that Italian prisoners, criminal as well as political, are being released, apd, instead of merely taking an inventory of military equipment in the area, the Italians are ordering that vital parts must be taken from guns, tanks, and aeroplanes. They also order that, with surplus arms and ammunition, the war materials must be placed in a central depot under Italian control. All army supplies, especially petrol, must be drastically curtailed. What is described as even more sinister is the' fact that the former Italian Consuls and their staffs are Laking up again the threads of their old intelligence network from Damascus, Beirut, and Aleppo, and are beginning to compile “black lists” of men who still cherish the cause of Anglo-French freedom. The commission demands, a close guard for the Palestine frontier to prevent suspected men from escaping into the 'British-controlled zones.

Little by little the army which General Wcygand nursed to war strength is being disarmed and corrupted I'i‘om within by an underground espionage system.

In the commercial field, the Italians arc demanding fantastically high rates of exchange between the franc and the lire and stiff barter agreements for trade which they hope to develop overland through Turkey.

The German Armistice Commission is expected to arrive in Syria soon, and some commentators believe that the Italians are anxious io consolidate themslives before the Germans appear.

A great part of France's Syrian army is not taking the Italian demands lying down. While the French leaders sit at the conference table disputing the harsh demands, French staff officers and non-French members of the rank and file have begun counter-sabotage against the Fascists, Correspondents state that arms arc being secreted and that many men who formerly had hesitated to lake action are being stirred to fierce resentment by the revelations now being made as a result, of the commission’s presence and because they were ne”'”’ allowed to lenow before bow far the French armistice terms went.