UNREST IN SYRIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 246, 14 September 1940, Page 8

UNREST IN SYRIA

ITALIANS RESENTED

DE GAULLE FAVOURED

(United Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 2.20 p.m.) LONDON, bept. 13. The Associated Press says a. tremendous change in Syrian sentiment in favour of General de Gaulle has occurred since the arrival of the Italian Armistice Commission.

The French National Committee spokesman at Cairo states: “Resentment against the Italian efforts to disarm Syria is running high and an explosion may come at any moment. Last month Syrians were emphatically following the Vichy Government, but bitterness was engendered by the conviction that Italy, the first to arrive for 'the spoils, had not defeated France, and never could. '* The spokesman added: “The British Fleet bars the Italians from landing, but if Syria were disarmed airborne troops might take control and thrust against the Mosul oilfields, cutting off Britain’s main Middle East oil supp!y.” . .

Members of the Italian miss’on are reported to have been manhandled. A colonel’s nose was punched and legionaries jumped on another. The Emir Abdullah, in a speech, said the Franco-German Armistice had been critical for Syria. The Italian Commission . had displeased the Arabs because no foreign commission had a right to enter an Arab mandated territory with the object of maintaining authority. Any administrative change must be to the Arabs’ advantage.