VICHY OPPOSED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 254, 24 September 1940, Page 7

VICHY OPPOSED.

FRENCH TERRITORIES

UNREST IN NEAR EAST,

LONDON, Sept. 22.

A message from Vicily states that an official spokesman admitted that as a result of movements _in support of General de Gaulle incidents were oc- ( during practically throughout 1 rench Africa. The unrest was intense in Syria, Dahomey, and the French mandated. territory- of Togoland, and it was expected that the two last-named West African colonies would join General de Gaulle. The Cairo correspondent of tho Daily Express says that General Weygand’s broken army is becoming smaller daily as Syrian troops are refusing to participate in the surrender and disappear into the desert, taking with them the equipment that Italy is trying to obtain. There is a , strong movement to revive the ancient, plan to link tho Iraqui and Syrian Arabs. Iraq called up a new army class last week, and great diplomatic activity has been obserbed in Baghdad. The Cairo correspondent of the Daily Mail says that the situation in Syria appears to be nearing a climax. Tempers in Syria and the adjoining French-controlled republic of Lebanon are boiling up as the Italian Disarmament Commission flits about the country carrying on strange backstairs negotiations with the h rench. The Italians are shunning publicity because of the open hostility of all sects, and the members of the commission have employed a bodyguard of huge Senegalese since one member was assaulted. . , The Syrians arc convinced that the Italians’want first to seize the air bases and then take over the administration of the country. _ Ihe Syrians and Lebanese are turning to Iraq as a possible saviour, and Iraq has already formally protested to Vichv and 'requested the restoration of constitutional government. There is a growing inflationary trend in the note issue of tlie Syrian State Bank, and prices are rising rapidly.