HEARING A CLIMAX

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24411, 24 September 1940, Page 7

HEARING A CLIMAX

SITUATION IN SYRIA " TEMPERS BOILING UP " FEELING AGAINST ITALIANS I (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 22. (Received Sept. 23, at 10 p.m.) The Daily Mail's Cairo correspondent says the situation in Syria appears to be nearing a climax. Tempers in Syria and Lebanon are boiling up as the Italian Disarmament Commission flits about the country, carrying on strange backstairs negotiations with the French.

The Italians are shunning publicity because of open hostility by all sects. Members of the commission have employed a bodyguard of huge Senegalese since one member was assaulted. The Syrians are convinced, that the Italians want first to seize the air bases and then take over thp administration of the country. Iraq a Possible Saviour The Syrians and the Lebanese are turning to Iraq as a possible saviour. Iraq has already formally protested to Vichy and requested the restoration, of constitutional government There is a growing inflationary trend in the note issue of the Syrian State Bank, whose capital is 2,000,000 Syrian pounds. The note issue is already 7,000,000. Prices are rising rapidly. A Broken Army The Cairo correspondent of the Daily Express says General Weygand's broken armv is becoming smaller every day as Syrian troops, refusing to participate in surrender, disappear into the desert taking equipment Italy is trying to obtain. There is a strong movement to revive the ancient plan to link Iraq and Syrian Arabs. Iraq called up a new army class last week, and great diplomatic activitv is observed in Bagdad.

A message from Vichy states that an official spokesman admitted that as the result of the de Gaulle movement incidents are occurring practically throughout French Africa. Unrest is intense in Syria, Dahomey and French mandated Togoland. It is expected that the two last-named will join General de Gaulle.