ITALIAN INTERFERENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21220, 17 September 1940, Page 4

ITALIAN INTERFERENCE

“ Resentment against the Italian efforts to disarm Syria is running high and an explosion may come at any moment,” said the spokesman of the French National Committee at Cairo. It seemed recently that the French mandated territory of Syria was following the instructions of the Vichy Government and surrendering to the Italians, but serious friction is now reported. It is even stated that the Italian commission sent to disarm Syria has been submitted to personal violence. Developments in this area are of particular importance because Syria has a frontier with Palestine and might, were sea communication assured, afford the Italians another base for hostile action. Even if the French authorities in Syria should be disposed to obey the commands of the Italian commission, the Syrians themselves present another problem. Their leader, Emir Abdullah, in a speech said that the Franco-German armistice was critical for Syria. The Italian commission had displeased the Arabs because no foreign commission had the right to enter Arab mandated territory with the object of maintaining authority. Any administrative change must be to the Arabs’ advantage. Apparently the Syrians do not consider that the proposals of the Italians represent an advantage to the native population. Members of the commission are reported to have been manhandled, and an Italian colonel to have had his nose pulled. The feeling of free Frenchmen is not difficult to understand. Although Italy had little to do with the German defeat of France, Mussolini has lost no time in sending a commission to Syria to make sure of the spoils. Frenchmen might have bowed to the decision of a victor in decisive combat, but the intervention of a third party to seize the prize is as galling to Frenchmen as is the interference of Italy as an outsider to the Syrians, for whom the mandate over their country is a vital matter. The Italian commission is in a peculiar position. It has the orders of Mussolini to subdue Syria, but the orders cannot now be backed by force because Italy cannot send a force to Syria while Britain has command of the sea. The French and Syrian authorities have the matter in their own hands, and it would be a decision of much importance to Britain if they were to join Free France in opposition to the Vichy Government and Italian aspirations.