FRENCH DESERTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 June 1941, Page 5

FRENCH DESERTERS

FIGHTING ON THE ALLIED SIDE ADMISSION BY DARLAN’S SECRETARY. BRITISH FORCES MARKEDLY SUPERIOR. LONDON, June 10. The Free French radio at Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa, said: “Four thousand French deserters in Syria are now fighting on our side. Our advance continues most successfully and the advance guards are meeting with scarcely any resistance. The Allies have reached the outskirts of Beirut.” ' Admiral Darlan’s secretary in Vichy today admitted that the situation in Syria is particularly grave. The Vichy newspapers published the statement: “The British forces are markedly superior, specially in armoured equipment, and the- difficulties of our weak army defending the territories of the Levant must be pointed out. Supplying this army with not only arms and ammunition but also food and fuel is almost impossible.” A news agency report received in London says that during the past two days tremendous quantities of food have been taken up from Jerusalem, largely for distribution among the Syrian population, who have been short of food for many weeks. The morale of the advancing troops is very high. Several of the senior officers served in Palestine with General Allenby in the last war and know every inch of the country.