BUTCHERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19444, 2 November 1925, Page 9

BUTCHERY

TOLL OF BOMBARDMENT DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT THREE MILLIONS 1200 PRISONERS KILLED. By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright Received November 1, 5.5 p.m. CAIRO, Oct. 30. According to the Damascus newspaper ‘Oinran, ’ the damage done By the Damascus bombardment is estimated at three millions sterling. The authorities are forbidding all except women foreigners to leave the city, though 15,000 have left since October 20. A Beirut newspaper publishes a sensational report that twelve hundred prisoners in the citadel at Damascus were killed during the bombardment.

MILITARY CONTROL SUPERSEDED FRANCE TO APPOINT CIVIL HIGH COMMISSIONER. Received November 1, 5.5 p.m. PARIS, Oct. 30. The Government has decided to appoint a Civil High Commissioner in Syria when the mandate is organised. General Dupont has been appointed Acting-Civil High. Commissioner. General Sarrail has been requested to go to Paris to report. Tie Government is still awaiting General Sarrail’s detailed report regarding the Damascus affair. The American Ambassador, Mr Herrick, has handed M. Briand a Note asking for information regarding events in Syria for communication to Washington.

A BRITISH ACCOUNT

CONTINUOUS BOMBARDMENT. LONDON, Oct. 30. The ‘‘Morning Post’s” Jerusalem correspondent supplies the following reliable account of the Damascus insurrection from a British source. Troops on October 12 entered “the street called ‘straight’” with fourteen camels, each bearing a Syrian corpse. These were dumped in Merjde Square for public examination, all the dead being Damascenes. This enraged the populace. A strong Druse attack on October 18 was assisted by an insurrection of the city people, Druse bands erecting barricades in the Moslem quarter and burning shops and houses. The French artillery replied with a bombardment day and night for several days, while aeroplanes assisted. The British Embassy was damaged by shell fire, and the populace was terror-stricken by showers of bombs and shells. The city is still smouldering and the Christian and Jewish quarters are entirely at the mercy of the Moslem population. Houses were damaged and many people were killed. French soldiers shot some Syrians in cold blood. In one case six Moslems were placed against a wall and shot before a crowd of women and children. The 'casualties were greatest among the Syrians and include several hundreds of French.