MACHINE-GUNS USED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1943, Page 4

MACHINE-GUNS USED

AGAINST BEIRUT CROWDS

STRONG PROTESTS BY MOSLEMS & CHRISTIANS.

STATEMENT BY FRENCH COMMITTEE.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, November 12.

French tanks and armoured cars appeared in the streets of Beirut this morning, when angry mobs demonstrated against the arrest of the Lebanese President and members of Cabinet,. Reuter's Beirut correspondent reports. The French used machine-guns against the crowds, killing several civilians. A grenade thrown from the crowd burned out one tank.'

French troops occupied the headquarters of the Lebanese Government and Parliament House and surrounded the Speaker and a number of Deputies in the Chamber who refused to leave. The arrests of ten Moslem leaders, one of whom is the Minister of Supply, have been confirmed. Christian and Moslem leaders called on the British Minister, Sir E. Spears, and informed him that unless something was done by the British authorities, there would be bloodshed, says Reuter’s Beirut correspondent. The All Palestine conference of the Arab Chambers of Commerce decided on a country-wide “stoppage of activity” tomorrow afternoon, as a protest against the action of the French authorities in Lebanon.

According to a British Official Wireless message, the French Committee of National Liberation states that it has had a report on the situation in Lebanon from the French Delegate-Gen-eral, who returned to Beirut with instructions of the most liberal terms with a view to putting into effect as soon as possible the 1936 agreement, by which the Lebanon States were to receive all the attributes of sovereignty. It appears, the French Committee states, that the Lebanon Cabinet transgressed its powers and deemed it advisable to take powers by a fait accompli, without taking into consideration the rights and obligations of the Mandatory Power regarding the mandate.