MIDDLE EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1920, Page 5

MIDDLE EAST.

j THE FRENCH IN SYRIA. * TASKS FOR BRITAIN. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received July 21, 11.15 p.m, London, July 20. In the House of Commons, Mr. WinEton Churchill (Secretary for War) stated that larger reinforcements were ordered from India to Mesopotamia, and the Commander-in-Chief in Mesopotamia was fully authorised to take any measures for concentration or contraction that the situation required. Therefore, there was no reason for anxiety in regard to the general safety of the garrisons. A small force at Rumoita was still holding out, being supplied from ;he air. In moving the adjournment in order to discuss the immediate changes to British interests arising out of the threatened hostilities in Syria, Captain Ormsby Gore vigorously criticised the Government. He declared the supreme British interest in the Middle East, as elsewhere, was the restoration of peace, which alone would permit of political freedom and economic prosperity. The French ultimatum would inevitably entail the employment of further British troops and money.

Mr. Bonar Law, replying, pointe I out ihat France accepted the Syrian mandate at the San Remo Conference Feisul consenting. French troops had been massacred and other outrages committed. Interference on the part o: the House of Commons would be equivalent to interference by the French Chambar with our action against the) lawless Arabs in Mesopotamia. France had no: violated her mandate in Syria. Britain meant to honor her promise to the Arabs and France. Mr. Bonar Law declared that France had no intention of permanent military occupation after the mandate was accepted and order restored. That was our own policy in Mesopotamia.—Aus.N T .Z. Cibie Assn.