SENTIMENT IN SYRIA

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 8

SENTIMENT IN SYRIA

FAITH IN FREE FRANCE London, September 13. A tremendous change in Syrian sentiment in favour of General De Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces, has occurred since the arrival of the Italian armistice commission, says the Associated American Press. A French National Committee spokesman at Cairo said: "Resentment against Italian efforts to disarm Syria is high and an explosion may come at any moment. , Last month the Syrians were emphatically following the Vichy Govemment, but bitterness has been engendered by the oonviction that Italy, the first to arrive for the spoils, has not defeated France, and never could." •He added: "The British Fleet bars the Italians landing, but' if " Syria is disarmed, air-bome troops might take . control and thrust against the Mosel oilfields, cutting off Britain's main Middle East oil supply." Members of the Italian mission are reported to have been manhandled. A colonel's nose was punched, and legionaries jumped on another. The Emic Abdullah, in a speech, said that the Franco-German armistice was critical for , Syria. The Italian commission had displeased the Arabs because no foreign commission had the right to enter Arab-mandated territory with the object of maintaining authority. Any administrative change must be to the Arabs' advantage. The Times' Simla correspondent says that the measure of the British command of the Red Sea is reflected in an official disclosure that since the outbreak of the war 71 troopships and supply ships from Indian ports have used the Red Sea route to the Middle East without loss. Since the Italian occupation of Somaliland two large contingents have passed unmolested through the Red Sea. Vessels from British, Australian and South African ports are continually using the route in both directions.