Evening star., 1941-06-10
Pamphlet Campaign
Accompanies Move
Into French Syria
Keeping Nozis Out Only
Objective, Natives Told;
Opposition Is Light
BY EDWARD KENNEDY,
Associated Press War Correspondent

WITH ALLIED FREE
FRENCH FORCES IN SYRIA, June
g Delayed.- British and Free
French forces entered Syria today
to the accompaniment of a pamphlet
campaign telling both French and
native residents that the sole objec-
tive of the drive was to keep the
Nazis out.
Australian infantry and British
cavalry, as well as other units as
sembled at the Palestine border so
quietly that even local residents were
unaware of their presence. They
swept over the frontier in the early
morning, just as big silver moon
was sinking behind the hills.
On the coast road they dashed for
lskanderun to prevent the road from
being blown up in a narrow pass.
At Metulla they made for the forts
Of Khaim and Clare. In between
these points cavalry charged in the
first British use of horses in the war
AS dusk fell Saturday, tanks,
armored cars, guns and trucks filled
with soldiers poured out from the
pleasant groves of Northern Pales-
tine where they had taken shelter
under the olive and cypress trees.
Road Comes Alive.
Suddenly the road came alive with
military traffic rolling toward the
border.
spent the night at Metulla, at the
very tip of the Palestine finger 20
miles long and miles wide into
Syria.
This smiling valley-the ancient
land of the Isrealite tribe of Dan
is almost purely Hebrew, peopled not
by recent arrivals but by Jews who
never wandered or came back while
1t still was under the Turks.
At one end of the town is the
frontier post and few miles to the
east are the ruins of the ancient
city of Dan and the spring which is
the source of the River Jordan.
Metulla was peaceful. The vii
layers led their cattle back to the
stables in the even haze never
dreaming that the lightning war
they had dreamed about was going
to whiz right past them.
Only a few frontier guards were
there.
While all of Merdjayoun, Just
across the Lebanese frontier from
Palestine, was still asleep before 2
am. yesterday, Australian infantry
with Bren gun-carriers and light
artillery sped up from the shores of
the Sea of Gallilee.
The town heard their rumble only
in the distance, for Just before
reaching it they cut across fields and
into nearby Syria.
They surprised the frontier post
where a French sergeant and seven
Lebanese guards surrendered with
out word and then they drove for
Clare where they found the fort
abandoned.
But soon they encountered VOL
ley of shots from the hiding place
of the garrison close by. ..''e.
British instructions were not to
fire until fired on. The fortunes of
war now were pitting the British
against their former ally and the
soldiers of Gen. Charles de Gaulle
against their brothers in the army
Of Marshal Petains France.
Delaying Resistance.
On meeting this resistance-which
seemed to be of a delaying rather
than a determined kind-the Aus
tralians opened artillery fire which
knocked out the big guns trained on
Merdjayoun.
AS the sun came up the Austria.
lians stormed the stronger fortress
of Khaim, which is perched on a
hilltop. They paused now and then
in their shelling to give its defenders
time to think about giving in.
But by midmorning the fortress