LEBANON PRESIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1943, Page 4

LEBANON PRESIDENT

AND RELEASED MINISTERS I WELCOMED ENTHUSIASTICALLY IN BEIRUT. SOME PROBLEMS AWAITING SOLUTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, November 22. The President of Lebanon, Bechara El Khoury, and members of the Government released after being under arrest, were received with an enthusiastic demonstration when they entered Beirut this afternoon, says Reuter’s Beirut correspondent. A huge crowd gathered at the Presidential residence. The President urged them to remain calm and assured them that Lebanon’s independence was not threatened. Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent declares that the President must now negotiate with General Catroux on measures “for the rapid re-establish-ment of constitutional life,” which means the Government and Parliament. The French National Committee laid down two conditions’—firstly, the President must choose new Ministers; secondly, there will be no fresh Parliamentary elections. The ministers who have not been reinstated were appointed by the President. They have not, so far as is known, tendered their resignations to the President. The ■President might, firstly, refuse to ap- ' point a new Government, and, secondly, dismiss the Government and ap--point a new set of Ministers, which ‘-would inevitably involve him in conflict when Parliament was revived.