NO PREFERENCE FOR FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25216, 31 May 1945, Page 5

NO PREFERENCE FOR FRANCE

ACTING-PREMIER'S EMPHATIC STAND By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received May 30, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 30 All over Syria and, to a lesser degree, in Lebanon, says a British correspondent there is the same picture—groups demonstrating, national flags flying, shops closed, police and soldiers The more open signs of revolt are in Syria. In Damascus the corespondent interviewed • Jamil Bey, the acting-Prime Minister, wh held out no hope of a solution by negotiation. He said that Syria would never consent to negotiate under pressure. The French proposals were unacceptable and there was no possibility of Syria making counter-proposals. Syria's aim, said Jamil Bey, was to liquidate all her former relations with France. She would not give strategic bases and there was no question of the French getting any privileges in Syria which other nations did not enjoy equally. Appearances suggest that the Lebanese are more inclined to compromise than the Syrians, adds the correspondent, but that is onlv a superficial impression and all the Lebanese political leaders are deeply committed to a final settlement of accounts with France. The Prime Minister, Abdul Karameh, said that he had 100,000 Volunteers waiting to join his national guard. The correspondent also talked with the representative of the French Government in the Levant. He was given a specific assurance that France would not seek to achieve her end by force.