Evening star., 1925-11-03

How fare the mandates of the
Near East? Therein lies present IN
rest. The League of Nations de
mands from the president OF the
league that he obtain from the for
eign minister of France (himselt) an
explanation of the bombardment OF
Damascus.
The president of the league, NJ.
BRAND, listens attentively while him
self. as Minister BRAND of France, eX-
plains that it was necessary for
civilization to maintain its authority
over the Moslem hordes in upholdlnE
the mandate given 10 rance oS tAe
league over Syria.
T,l1s the SlIpergovernment of the
world is sustained. Gen. Surrail. the
French military commissioner. who
ordered the bombardment, as he
claims In accord with the policy lald
down in Paris by the cabinet, in which
Minister BRAND is foreign minister. Is
recalled to Paris, though not IN as
grace in his own country. Ihefe mas
been no official disavoWat OF ms maSSa,
ere of 900 Armenian Christians and
several thousand Noslems in Damas-
Gus.
What is even more far-reachinS
than the horror of civilization is the
seeming justification in the minds OF
the MosIenls in whatever revenge
they are able to take against Western
civilization and Christianity. Fury Is
aroused wherever there is a Moslem
to hear the story of how Chris
tians' act when in power.
!; x X X
The French in Syria justify their
general course by reason OF their
mandate from the League OF Ma
tions. 4 mandate is a trust bestowed
by one party upon another-a power
of ATTORNEY in some cases. a mere
advisory obligation in others. The
condition precedent of any mandate
ia that the mandatarius, who gives
the mandate TO the mandatum. must
first be the owner or controller OF
the property so intrusted In the
present case the mandatarluS was
tbe League Of Nations, which neither
owned nor legally controlled SYRIA
Yet. it undertook to give TO France
what IL did not itself possess ana
France, being one of the great pow,
ers which controlled the League OF
Nations, accepted the responsibility
without confirmation from SYRIA
The exact terms of the Syrian
mandate limited the authority or
France to giving advice to the ma
tive government, but France con-
strued the authority of advice TO
Garry with it the authority to compel
obedience to that advice.
MANY members of the Syrian cabl-
net were educated men. The minister
Of finance had received his early edu-
cation in an American mission schooi
in Beirut, and later was graduated
from the University of Edinburgh.
Yet, according to the story OF that
III al lNa ol
one of the first acts of the French
army of occupation was to throw all
the native officials into jail, denounc-
ing them as rebels-not rebels from
their own government supported by
both Moslems and Christians, but reb-
els from their League of Nations
advisers" the French. The next step
was to lombard the capital and Kill
thousands of natives. Damascus then
paid fine of S5o,000 and 5000 rifles
for being so patriotic to its own gov
ernment. Then the DamaScenes start
ed to mob Gen. Sarrail, who required
most of his army to defend him until
he could escape to Beirut, en- route to
Paris.
One of the consequences of the Mos
lem wrath is the depreciation of the
value and security of the many French
concessions in the oil and other
commercial resources acquired in
Syria, even in the short occupation of
that country by it's mandatum. The
participating of army officers and pol
iticians in the private exploitation of
the country occupied by the man
datum was not contemplated by the
League of Nations. In most cases
such speculation at the cost of the
SIlhdIIed people is directly forbidden
by law and custom, but it is charged
that such prohibition was openly
ignored In Syria.