Evening star., 1925-11-14
DAMASCUS STANDS
AS CITY Of DEAD IN
TERROR Of ATTACK
Streets Deserted by All Save
Troops as Arab Onslaught
Is Waited Nightly.
U. S. BOOMING TRADE
DEALT SEVERE BLOW
Years to Be Necessary for Recov-
ery-50,OOO Troops Held
Needed for Defensef
BY tho Associated Press.

DAMASCUS, Syria, November IA
Damascus is like a besieged city.
Everybody except the military must
| he indoors by s o'clock in the evening
and during the day there are 50 many
soldiers in the nanow thoroughfares
that one is almost continually bump
Ing into rifles. picking ones way
through barbed-wire entanglements or
stumbling across sand-bag barricades.
At the curfew hour the street cars
stop, the people disappear like magic
and the most beautiful of the Syrian
oases become as dead. apparently, as
the desert surrounding~it.
Outside Dana sclS hardly a night
passes that the rebels do not burn d
bridge leading to the city, raid a
suburb, or commit some other depre-
dation requiring the dispatch of a
French expedition against them.
All the territory between Mount
Hermon and Wadi Ajami, the size of
the State of New Jersey, now Is in the
hands of the rebel Druse tribesmen
and their nationalist allies and the
French forces hold only six cities on
the railway from Aleppo in the north
to Dera in the south.
$4,000 Troops Needed
Fifty thousand troops. or double the
force now in Syria. would be required
10 restore order In the country, com
petent observers declare. Even when
these reinforcements arrive. II is fear
ed they will suffer heavy losses in the
guerrilla warfare which. as conducted
here, Is reminiscent of the campaigns
against the American Indians.
Workmen are clearing the debris
from the principal thoroughfares Of
Damascus and rebuilding the ruined
baZaars in the Street Called Straight
but trade is paralyZed and no buyers
answer the weird cries of the mer-
chants. In the devastated residential
quarters of the Arab aristocracy the
proprietors visit their ruined palaces,
directing their servants in searches
for household treasures.
Although notable Damascenes reas-
sure the populace that the insurrec-
tionists will make no attempt to cap
ture the city, knowing that such ac-
tion would only result in another
French bombardment and consequent
heavy loss of life, there is an unmis-
taxable air of tension. Everybody
seems to be waiting for something to
happen and people continue TO leave in
the direction of the Mediterranean.
L. s. Commerce Affected.
American commerce in Syria, which
had been steadily developing, has re-
ceived a decided setback. from which
1t Is doubtful II can recover for many
years. The largest American business
was in automobiles. This has come to
a complete standstill, owing to the
insecurity of motor traffic outside the
cities. Likewise the importation of
American agricultural machinery and
kerosene has ceased.
Three American business concerns
which suffered from the French bom-
bardment have filed claims against the
government. They are the Vacuum
Oh Co, the Singer Sewing Machine
Co. and MacAndrews & Forbes.
The American consul is receiving in
quiries from Syrians in the United
States regarding relatives. some of
whom are in the rebel territory. Thou
sands Of these people are reported to
be suffering because of the cutting off
Of remittances from their relatives in
America, estimated to total 5000, 900
monthly.
Six miles outside Damascus. Sultan
Atrash, brother of the leader Of the
Djebel Druse Tribesmen, Is encamped
with several thousand men. while
other bands, one of them led by Nes-
sib el Bakri, a descendant Of the
prophet, are in the vicinity of the city.
To the north. between Damascus
and HONS, Jomma Sousong is at the
head of force Of rebels mainly COM
posed Of Druses. This band recently
attacked Nebk, with which communi-
cation is cut off. A Danish mission is
in Nebk.
On the Damascus Beirut road still
another band Of rebels is-operating in
the vicinity of Doummar, but their
work seems mainly ta be the robbing
Of the unwary who attempt to reach
Beirut by motor oar from Damascus.
1t is said that Several automobilists
have either been killed or wounded BY
these bandits.
SEES GROSS EXAGGERATION.