ACTION IN LEBANON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1943, Page 3

ACTION IN LEBANON

DEFENDED BY GENERAL DE GAULLE “SITUATION ON THE WAY TO SOLUTION.” SYMPATHY WITH ARAB IDEAL OF FEDERATION. LONDON, November 16. France could not renounce hei’ obligations and her incontestable juridical position in the Lebanon, declared General de Gaulle in a speech at Algiers. He added: “France cannot allow troubles prejudicing the Allies’ strategic position to develop in the Lebanon The situation there is well on the way to solution.” “The incident has not affected relations with Britain, who has interested herself as much as France in the Near East situation and the destiny ■of the Arab peoples. I have never wished .that during the war France should break the alliance with her Allies. France wants a constitutional situation established in the Lebanon. She cannot be suspected of endangering the liberty of the Lebanese, and she has watched with sympathy the Arab people’s' ideal of federation.” General Catroux, in Beirut, has already conferred with French and British authorities, says Reuter’s Haifa correspondent, who says reports from Beirut state that there were no further clashes in the capital on Sunday and Monday. The capital shows no signs of life. All shops and offices are closed, and communications with the outside are suspended. Strong military patrols, with tanks, are patrolling the streets. The Ankara correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company . says that according to travellers from Syria and the Lebanon serious rioting, with firing, was still going on on Sunday in Beirut and Tripoli. All shops in Aleppo were closed, and traffic was at a standstill. M. Helleu, the French delegate in the Lebanon, said at a Press conference in Beirut that the decision to arrest the Lebanese President and Cabinet was taken by the French committee in Algiers. He had warned General de Gaulle that there might be trouble, but General de Gaulle had instructed him to go ahead and make the arrests. BEIRUT QUIET BUT STRIKES STILL IN PROGRESS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) RUGBY, November 17. General Catroux this afternoon called on the British Minister in Beirut, Sir E. Spears, according to a statement by the British Information Office in Cairo, which continues: “The Government, representing the imprisoned Ministers and the dissolved Chamber, has issued instructions to officials not to co-operate with the Edde Administration. Beirut was quiet during the night. Strikes continue.”