VICHY COLLAPSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1941, Page 6

VICHY COLLAPSE

EXPECTED IN SYRIA

EFFECT OF SERIOUS LOSSES & DESERTIONS. FOUR GENERALS DISMISSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON. June 30. There is a strong possibility that the collapse of French resistance in Syria may come sooner than was expected a few days ago. Some senior officers .with General Dentz are anxious to avoid further futile bloodshed and consider that honour has now been satisfied after three weeks’ stubborn fighting. Heavy losses in men and material have been inflicted on the French who have been further weakened by numerous desertions to the Free French. The “Daily. Herald's” correspondent in Syria says General Dentz has made an urgent appeal to the Vichy authorities for food and munitions. President Inonu is likely to refuse transport facilities for the French troops to retire across Turkey. If France is thus rebuffed it will decisively influence the campaign, giving General Dentz an excuse for seeking an armistice. The correspondent adds that evidence that General Dentz’s staff is not keen on continuing to fight is given by the fact that four Syrian generals have been dismissed and replaced by Vichy tools.

“The Times” correspondent on the French frontier says that military authorities consider Homs of decisive importance in the Syrian conflict. Its fall would be equivalent to the loss of Syria.