GERMAN PLANES ATTACKED

Southland Times, Issue 24438, 19 May 1941, Page 7

GERMAN PLANES ATTACKED

Aircraft On Syrian Aerodromes (8.0.W.) RUGBY, May 16. German aircraft on three Syrian aerodromes were attacked yesterday. At Palmyra three JU 90’s, two other German aircraft and one Italian C.R. 42 were machine-gunned. At least three of these aircraft were severely damaged. One other was burned out. Similar attacks were made at Damascus and Rayak. This statement in a communique issued by the Royal Air Force Headquarters in the Middle East confirms the report of the Cairo correspondent of the British United Press that the Royal Air Force has now begun operations against the German planes on the aerodromes of Syria. The Independent French Agency’s Cairo correspondent says that German tanks and light war material are crossing Syria in the direction of Iraq. Twenty big bombers have landed at Damascus aerodrome and transport planes at Rayak aerodrome, 30 miles from Beirut. Planes of the Free French Air Force have dropped pamphlets urging the French in Syria to throw off the Vichy yoke. At least eight German freighters and four or five Italian or Rumanian ships have entered the Aegean Sea from the Black Sea laden with troops and war material, states the British United Press Istanbul correspondent. “LEASE OR LEND” PRINCIPLE A Berlin spokesman refused to comment on the Luftwaffe’s use of the Syrian aerodromes but said that, if France permitted the passage of German troops and planes across Syria she would merely be applying the United States principle of the Lease or Lend Act. The British Government has given notice that the limited areas in the Mediterranean which were declared dangerous to shipping in February and April 1941, have been extended to include all the waters eastward of a line drawn from Ras el Kanais on the Egyptian coast east to Merza Matruh to a point about three miles from Cape Khelidonia in Turkey with the exception of Turkish territorial waters. Any vessel sailing in these areas without the permission of the British naval authorities does so at its risk and peril. The areas enclose the Eastern Mediterranean from a line drawn between these two points to the Syrian coast. General George Catroux, commander of the Free French Forces in the Middle East, made a broadcast today to his compatriots in Syria. “If you should choose to take up arms to drive out the enemy I am at your gates with French armed cohorts,” he said. FRESH ACT OF TREASON A communique issued by the Free French headquarters in London states: “In allowing Syrian aerodromes to be used by German planes the abettors of

the June capitulation have been guilty of a fresh act of treason. How could Petain —revoking the promise he so recently made publicly—associate himself with a move against the allies of the French? The Frenchmen who have joined General de Gaulle in order to continue the struggle see with the deepest sorrow the sad end of a French military leader, who is now the mere toy of a small group of careerists who have gone over to the enemy.

“The Free French have, never held that the Vichy Government, which was formed without consulting the French people, is entitled to speak on behalf of the nation. They always maintained that the action taken by Vichy defies the wishes of the immense majority of the people. Faced with this fresh infamy on the part of Darlan and his accomplices the Free French wish to state before the whole world that the Vichy Government does not represent France and that the French people must not in anv way be involved in that Government’s dishonour.”