The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-26
fRy Associated Pressl

(By Associated Press)
PARIS, May 26.-The French for
eign office has no knowledge Of the
conviction of Charles R.
Crane, former American minister to
China by French military court in
Damascus on a charge of inciting a
riot, as reported in press dispatches, il
was stated today.
Troubles In Syria were provoked by
"injudicious talk" by Mr.. Crane, for
eign officials said, but up to the pres
ent moment they had no information
regarding any condemnation.
Mr.. Crane himself said he was con-
fdent the report of his conviction was
an error.
In explaining his visit to Syria, Mr..
Crane said to the correspondent: "My
reception by the people of Damascus
was entirely friendly They asked
why their wishes, made known to the
committee on mandates in Turkey
three years ago never had been heard
from. They said that since that time,
on ccount of severe French censorship
they had not been able to make their
voice heard by the outside world.
Whatever demonstration they made
was to make me understand that their
feelings against the French mandates
were stronger than ever. They hoped
l could get their message out.
No Riotine, Claim.
There was no rioting, but such
demonstrations were of daily occur
renee on the streets of Cairo. The
British did not lose their heads. The
French chief of police, however, a ma
tive who has been terrorizing Damas
Gus ever since the French occupied il
made capital out of such demonstra
uons and used machine guns on un-
armed people and some of the lead
ing men of Damascus were sent to
long terms in prison without trial.
"All these incidents were foreseen
and indicated in the report on man
dates and great injustice has been
done both to the Syrians and to con-
servative French people as well as to
our own missionaries and educators,
by the suppression of that report by
our state department.
81 myself have had no disagreeable
experiences with French officials eth
er in Damascus or here
The French government appears to
have no knowledge whatever of the
case beyond the fact that some disor-
ders occurred during Mr.. Cranes visit
to Syria which had been attributed TO
what the French characterize as in
judicious statements by him. They
have no report of either any convio
| ton or even prosecution of Mr.. Crane,
Admits Hostility
| The former diplomat. who points
out that he was in Syria solely as a
private citizen that in the agitated
atmosphere prevalent in Syria there
may have been some feeling against
him although he declares that in
neither Syria nor France has he met
with anything but courtesy from the
| French.
| He declares he has no intention Of
taking the matter up with the French
| foreign office in the present stage OF
the affair, preferring to regard the re-
port as erroneous until it is proved
otherwise. His friends point out that
! the report came from Cairo and was
/ based on an article translated from
an Arabic newspaper leaving wide
room for error, as translations from
this language vary considerably.
They added that the conviction OF a
number of Syrian leaders and their
description as being friends Of Mr.
Crane may have resulted in the belief
that the latter himself has been
| sentenced.