THE SYRIAN PROBLEM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19445, 3 November 1925, Page 8

THE SYRIAN PROBLEM

INDISCRETIONS OF GENERAL

S.ARRAIL FAR-REACHING EFFECTS. TURKEY TO TRANSPORT TROOPS. MESOPOTAMIA MENACED. Received November 2, 7.15 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 1. The “Daily Express” understands that General Sarrail’s indiscretions were not limited to Damascus. It adds that informtion reached the British Foreign Office last week that the Turks had been given permission to transport 5000 troops across Syria to the Mesopotamian border. Britain immediately protested to France, but it is by no means clear that Franco had any alternative. There was strong reluctance on the part of France to do anything mimical to her relations with Turkey. The Damascus correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that Damascus is virtually a dead city after sunset. The curfew is enforced at 9 o’clock in the evening, after which the hotels and cafes are closed and houses are barred.

A special court is trying suspects speedily and sentencing "to death the guilty.

MANDATE TO BE REORGANISED THE LEAGUE STEPS IN. LONDON, Nov. L It is practically certain that General Sarrail will not return to Syria. It is now stated that the Syrian mandate will be reorganised without delay by a special mission from the League of Nations, which is sign illcant in view of the fact that it expires in September, 1927. Tho 11 Sunday Times’ 1 Paris correspondent says: “There is growing support for the .abandonment of tho Syrian mandale on tho grounds that it merely involves heavy expenditure and difficulties not compensated for by any positive gain. It is generttlly felt that the tardy removal of General Sarrail was designed to save the Minis try, but the latter has not secured a clean sheet and will probably receive a severe shaking lat the outset of its career.”

THE SHELLING OF DAMASCUS ANOTHER ACCOUNT BY AN EYE WITNESS LONDON, Nov. 1. The “Sunday Express” publishes an eye-witness’s account of the bombardment, received by an English firm from their Damascus representative, , in which he says: “The bombardment of the native quarters which the Druses I were holding continued relentlessly for I twenty-four hours and entirely demolished them. The houses which arc ricketty structures collapsed like houses of cards, burying the occupants in a liv ing tomb. The plight of those shelteri ing in the cellars of the larger houses was no bettor. Tho houses collapsed and entombed them, and tho casualties must have boon enormous. Thousands of men, women and children are dead or entombed.

“Several villages on tho outskirts are in ashes. “The whole, countryside is in an acute state of rebellion.’’ FRENCH CASUALTIES THE COST TO DATE PARIS, Nov. 1. A communique has been issued in which the Premier points out that the 6000 French reported killed in Syria represents the total killed and missing since 1920, whereas the killed and missing since the outbreak of the present disorders only number 585, barely half of whom are French.

MORE TROOPS ON THE WAY A BIG ARMY. PARIS, Nov. 1. According to ‘Le Journal’ besides two cavalry regiments, eight more battallions of infantry, including two from Morocco, arc being despatched to Syria, making the strength of the French army in the Levant five regiments of cavalry and thirty infantry battalions. A FAMINE THREATENS BEDOUINS MASSING NEAR ALEPPO. PARIS, Nov. 1. A message from Syria states that insurgents occupy tho villages around Damascus where a famine is feared as the supplies of wheat from Hanrean are now cut off. Bedouin tribesmen led by Ramaden and Shallash, are gathering at Dcrrasul, near Aleppo, where the local Bedouin chief, Hajin, refuses to negotiate with the French.