SYRIAN ARMISTICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24738, 15 October 1941, Page 9

SYRIAN ARMISTICE

NEW ZEALANDER’S POST HEAD OF ALLIED COMMISSION (0.C.) LONDON, Sept. 16. The head of the Allied Armistice Commission in Syria is a New Zealander, Major-general John Inglis Chrystall. C.8.E., M.C., aged 52. formerly. of Christ's College. Christchurch. He recently welcomed to Beirut British prisoners of war, surrendered by Vichy under the Syrian Armistice. They were returned from Marseilles. Immediately before the war Majorgeneral Chrystall, then lieutenantcolonel, commanded the Transjordan Frontier Force. He had a narrow escape from death while he was watching from an aeroplane a battle between the force and Arab terrorists. Service in Great War

Major-general Chrystall was at Christ’s College from 1897 to 1904. He spent 1906-7 at Lincoln Agricultural College, and, gaining a diploma in agriculture, he took up land in Hawke's Bay.. He left New Zealand in 1912 to enlist in the 7th Queen’s Own Hussars. then stationed at Bangalore, South

India. In November, 1914, he was granted a commission in the 13th Hussars. A year later he was loaned to the Machine Gun Corps, and he served throughout the remainder of the war in France, Persia and Mesopotamia. He was awarded the M.C. and was mentioned three times in despatches. From 1919 to 1921 he was at General Headquarters in Mesopotamia. In 1922 he was appointed to the Egyptian Army and commanded a squadron of cavalry in the Sudan for three years. The appointment to Commandant of Police of Kordofan Province, Sudan, followed, and he held the position for three years and a-half. In January, 1929. he rejoined the 13th/18th Hussars, and was attached to them for a foreign tour of duty later in the year when the regiment moved to Cairo. In 1936 he attended a senior officers’ course in Belgaum, Bombay. A Narrow Escape

Major-general Chrystall’s escape in Transjordan occurred in March, 1939. The New Zealander was observing the progress of the action between the Transjordan forces and the Arabs from an aeroplafie piloted by a sergeant. When the sergeant flew low over the territory to give his passenger a better view, the Arabs opened fire on the machine, which was hit 10 times. One bullet struck the sergeant, but, fighting the weakness which arose from loss of blood, he retained control of the plane and turned for home. After landing safely on the aerodrome the pilot collapsed and was taken to hospital in a serious condition. He shouted to Major-general Chrystall to use his parachute, but the New Zealander refused, and gave the wounded man what help he could.