PEACE IN SYRIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1941, Page 5

PEACE IN SYRIA

DENTZ PAYS TRIBUTE TO OPPONENTS REFUGEES RETURNING FROM TURKEY. DISARMAMENT OF FRENCH SHIPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 17. The Beirut correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that before his departure from the city preceding the Allies’ formal entry, General Deutz told a gathering of Frenchmen that they had been dealing with people who displayed much understanding and behaved like fighting veterans. , The armistice terms, he said, were more favourable than he had expected, and they would have been even more so but for some of the supporters of General de Gaulle. The casualties among the Vichy forces in Syria totalled 4000 to 5000, including 1000 killed, according to Free French sources. Forty-five thousand Vichy troops were engaged in the war, including 10,000 Syrians and Lebanese and 5000 Foreign Legionaries. Thousands of refugees who were driven to Turkey by the Vichy antiSemitic policy and the lack of commodities, particularly food, due to the effective British blockade, are now preparing to return to Syria. The Disarmament of 11 French ships lying in Alexandretta had been completed under Turkish supervision and the crews have been interned.