VICHY REPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1941, Page 6

VICHY REPORT

OF LOSS OF PALMYRA POWERFUL ATTACK LED BY ARMOURED UNITS. DECISION TO DEFEND BEIRUT UNPOPULAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.mj LONDON, July 3. Palmyra surrendered this afternoon. A Vichy communique, admitting the fall of the town, asserts that it was vanquished after a powerful attack, led by armoured units. Vichy also reports that two additional British columns are invading Syria from Iraq. It was said that one column is attacking Telkotchek, in north-eastern Syria on the IstanbulBagdad Railway, and the other column is threatening Jebel Simdjar, further southwards. The communique added: ‘'British motorised forces have advanced southwards to Deir Ez Zor, where fighting is proceeding.” British ships again shelled the coast and Beirut was heavily air raided last night. General Dentz’s home was again hit. A French submarine has been sunk off the Syrian coast. It is .reported from Cairo that numbers of the captured Vichy troops have enlisted with the Free French forces. A student of an American college at Beirut, who has reached Alexandretta, stated that General Dentz and members of his staff are most unpopular because he has decided to defend the town to the last. The entire population is pro-British and is indignant that the French, who did not defend Paris, should expose Beirut to the horrors of a siege. A number of leading officers have been arrested as sympathisers with General de Gaulle and many who are continuing to obey orders are strongly sympathetic to the Free French. The oil works at Beirut have been destroyed and the port has been heavily damaged.