BAR TO SOVIET’S PROGRESS

Southland Times, Issue 24027, 18 January 1940, Page 12

BAR TO SOVIET’S PROGRESS

DRIVE SOUTH WOULD BE OPPOSED OPINION OF SYRIAN PRIEST “If Russia should decide on a southward drive she will find a strong opposition aligned against her,” said the Rev. Father Michael Bardouil, secretary to the Catholic Melkite Metropolitan of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Syria, who arrived in Dunedin on Monday. In conversation with a reporter, Father Bardouil said that any such move would certainly be opposed by the Mohammedan Powers, Turkey, Caucasia, Persia and Afghanistan. Even in Czarist days, he said, Russia had been interested in Asia Minor, and had established a chain of free schools. The Orthodox Church had given aid in its sphere of influence, but under the new regime the position had greatly changed. Now the Christian, as well as the Mohammedan elements, would be opposed to any move by Moscow towards domination. Father Bardouil arrived in New Zealand last May with the intention of spending six months of a holiday in this country, where his mother and other relations have taken up residence. The outbreak of war, however, caused him to change his plans and he now intends to remain here until the international position has been clarified. Father Bardouil will be in Dunedin for about 10 days and on Sunday morning he will celebrate Mass in St. Joseph’s Cathedral for the Lebanese community. It is some years since Mass under the ritual used in Syria has been celebrated locally and the occasion should possess unusual interest, especially as Dunedin is the centre of the Lebanese population in the Dominion.

The history of Father Bardouil’s country has been a chequered one. With Beirut as its capital, the Mount Lebanon region has been an important crossroads between the Orient and the Occident for centuries, and the fate of its people has been bound up in the rise and fall of the various imperial Powers. Indeed, the very name of the visitor is a link with one of these phases, for the Bardouils trace their ancestry back to Baron Baudouin, a prominent figure during the Crusades, when France held the counti-y for Christendom for a long period. Now-

adays, Mount Lebanon is a separate French mandate from the rest of Syria, this division tracing back to last century when, under the persuasion of European Powers whose feelings had. been aroused by the terrible massacres of Christians, the Turkish sultan granted Lebanon an individual status with its own governor. Under French protection the country has progressed, and today Beirut is a city of 150,000 inhabitants with two universities, one French and one American. It is a centre of culture, and students from a wide region go there to study, many of the graduates finding civil service positions as far abroad as the Sudan. Father Bardouil has been deeply impressed by New Zealand’s favoured position in the world. Not only is it remote from racial and religious conflicts, of a more or less active nature, he said, but it has also a rich and varied scenery, and its people enjoy a high standard of living.