CRISIS IN LEBANON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1943, Page 3

CRISIS IN LEBANON

GENERAL CATROUX GIVEN FULL POWER TO ACT FOR FRENCH COMMITTEE. GOING AT ONCE TO BEIRUT. LONDON, November 12. General Catroux is to leave immediately for Lebanon to deal with the crisis that has arisen there. lie lias full powers to act on behalf of the French Committee of National Liberation. DISORDERS GROW SENEGALESE TROOPS FIRE ON CROWD. BRITISH AND EGYPTIAN PROTESTS. LONDON, November 12. Senegalese troops in Beirut fired on crowds and demonstrators after the Lebanese police refused to obey orders. All Lebanon has been placed under a curfew after serious disturbances in the streets of Beirut and Tripoli, says Reuter’s Cairo correspondent. All members of the Lebanon Government except one have been arrested. General M. Jean Helleu, the French Committe’s delegate in Lebanon, issued a proclamation dissolving the Lebanese Government and Parliament and appointing M. Emile Edde to carry on the business of the Lebanese Government. The British Minister in Lebanon and Syria, Sir Edward Spears, in the name of Britain as one of the “guarantors of Lebanese independence,” protested to the French National Committee representative in the Levant against the French actions. According to the British United Press Cairo correspondent, Sir Edward Spears protested because the authorities were not consulted. Nahas Pasha has cabled General de Gaulle protesting in the name of the Egyptian Government and people against the measures taken against the Lebanese statesmen. “Egypt and all Arab countries are-justly outraged that such action should be taken by representatives of France which has been loved as a haven of freedom. The violation by any Power of the sacred dogma the United Nations have sworn to respect can be regarded as an object for universal disapproval. If the Lebanese situation is not re-established as it logically should be, Egypt may be compelled to revise her attitude toward the French Committee.” Nahas Pasha also sent a letter to Mr Terence Shone, the British Minister in Egypt, urging British efforts to end “this most serious, crisis”; also to Mr Alexander Kirk, the United States Minister, saying that French violation of Lebanese independence is an act which cannot fail to raise general condemnation. BRITISH ACTION I PLEDGES OF 1941 RECALLED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, November 12. It is now confirmed in London that the French delegate in Lebanon, General M. Helleu, acted Without consultation with or notification to the British authorities when he arrested the President and leading members of the Lebanese administration. The British Minister at Beirut, Major-General Sir E. Spears, yesterday addressed to General Helleu a protest in regard to the action taken and failure to consult him. Instructions have also been sent to Mr H. MacMillan British resident Minister in Algiers, to take up the matter with the Committee of National Liberation. British interest arises from two considerations —Lebanon is situated in an area of vital strategic importance in regard to which British forces have the responsibility and the British Government cannot permit a disorderly situation to develop in any part of this area. Secondly, on June 8, 1941, the British Ambassador in Cairo declared that his Government supported and associated itself with the assurance of independence given by General de Gaulle, to Syria and Lebanon. The British Government stands firmly by this declaration.