Evening star., 1945-05-28
Flure-Up in Syriu


out in Syria and Lebanon strike a
particularly sour note. coming as
they do at the very moment when
the United States and Britain are
doing their best to arrive at a cor
dial understanding with France. But
the troubles themselves were un-
avoidable, given the antagonistic
viewpoints of France on the one
hand and Syria and Lebanon on the
other. They are merely the latest
complications in a problem which
goes back quarter century and
whose repercussions extend through
out the Near and Middle East.
The problem originates in the
breakup of the ramshackle Ottoman
Empire at the close of the First
World War. The victorious Allies
decided to terminate Turkish rule
over the Arab-speaking lands which
included Syria, Lebanon, Palestine,
Iraq and parts of Arabia. But, with
the exception of the Arabian
provinces, those lands were declared
mandates of the League of Nations,
Syria and Lebanon being assigned
to France as mandatory. the rest
being placed under British mandate.
However. both mandat tories were
confronted with a strong nationalis-
tic movement which had been grow
ing up throughout the Arabic lands
for half a century and which the
Allies had encouraged during the
war in order to get native aid against
the Turks. The upshot was trouble
everywhere, ranging from riots to
open rebellion on large scale. Brit
ish policy tended to appease ma
tionalistic agitation by transform
ing its mandates into qualified in
dependence. French policy was less
flexible. It's mandates were main
tanned substantially unaltered. and
rebellious protests were quelled by
force Of arms. Only under the
radical government of Leon Blum
was more conciliatory policy begun
which was not carried out by his
successor.
The collapse of France under the
German invasion in 1910 reused ma
tionalistic hopes in Syria and Leb-
anon, while the situation was fur
ther complicated by the adhesion of
the French forces there to the
Vichy regime of Marshal Petain.
Britain felt compelled to overthrow
Vichy rule there by force of arms,
and to ease the task held out hopes
Of independence to the native in
habitants. This led to complica-
tions with the Free French regime
of General de Gaulle, which assert
ed Frances mandatory rights and
was virtually compelled. under
British and American pressure, to
acquiesce in principle to a formula
of independence" qualified by spe-
cial French rights in Syria and Leb-
anon.
Like many attempted compromises
on basically irreconcilable issues,
this formula has merely given rise
to new squabbles over its interpre-
; tation. Meanwhile. the wider ma
tionalist movement has integrated
into an Arab League, formally
launched two months ago, wherein
Syria and Lebanon are full -fedged
members alongside Egypt, Iraq,
Trans Jordan. Saudi Arabia and
Yemen. This powerful aggregation is
pledged to support any of its men,
bers. and is already backing the
governments of Syria and Lebanon
in their protests against the en-
trance of French reinforcements
into those lands, countering with
demands that the French troops
already there be withdrawn.
Such a crisis is. of course, highly
embarrassing to Britain and, in
lesser degree, to the United States.
1t promises to tax the utmost re-
sources of diplomacy to forestall
what might be an extremely ugly
situation.