1941: Syria And Lebanon

French mandated Arabic territory in the Near East, became in 1941 independent republics. The Arabs had demanded for a long time the cession of the mandate and the declaration of the independence of the territory which had been divided up by the French into two 'states,' the so-called Lebanese Republic, on the coast of the Mediterranean, with Beirut as the capital and with a large Arabic speaking Christian native population, and the Republic of Syria in the interior of the country with Damascus as capital and a predominant Mohammedan population. Negotiations for the cession of the mandate had been conducted for several years between Syria and the French Republic, but a treaty concluded in 1936 had not been ratified by the French government in 1940, at the time of the collapse of France. The French administration of Syria, after some hesitation, followed the line of the government established in Vichy, gave up all resistance against Germany and Italy, and took generally the definite pro-German and anti-British attitude toward which Marshal Pétain, Pierre Laval and Admiral Darlan were leading the French Empire. On Dec. 9, 1940 General Henri Dentz, a convinced 'collaborationist,' was appointed French High Commissioner and Commander of the French forces in Syria and Lebanon.

German Designs on Syria and Lebanon.

With the German advance into the Balkans and with the pro-Fascist revolt in Iraq the importance of Syria as a connecting link between the German troops in Greece and their Arab sympathizers in Baghdad grew. It was regarded as possible that Syria might become an important base for German operations in the Near East, in the directions of the Suez Canal as well as in the direction of the Persian Gulf. These possibilities were increased by German agitation in Syria which was tolerated and partly encouraged by the Vichy administration, and at the same time by growing unrest among the Arabs who clamored for independence and whose unrest was also expressed by riots, owing to a serious food shortage and rising prices throughout the mandated territory. The German agitators, some of them distinguished orientalists and men of great experience in Near Eastern countries, tried to increase the unrest by picturing Hitler as the protector of Islam who would create a united and vast Arabia under German protection. By the end of March wide-spread strikes had agitated the country for about a month. In some parts of Syria all traffic was paralyzed. The strike started with a shortage of wheat flour and gasoline but soon assumed a political character. The disorders grew in violence; French troops were forced to fire, and a large number of natives were killed or wounded. The effort of the administration to arrive at some settlement was not successful. On March 20, the régime in Syria was sharply criticized in a manifesto issued by the Syrian national bloc under Shukri el Kuwatli, demanding that the rights of independence of the country be restored and a national government be formed. At the beginning of April a Syrian government was formed by the French authorities under Khaled Bey Azem, the head of the Damascus chamber of commerce. He was to name a council of ministers of five members who would be responsible to him.

A similar agitation to cut the ties with the French Empire was noticeable in the Lebanon, and on April 6, the Libanese 'government' headed by Emile Edde and Abdullah Bey Beyhum was replaced by a ministry under Alfred Naccache, a Christian Maronite leader. Meanwhile the use of Syrian airfields by German airplanes increased, while at the end of May the British foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, pledged on behalf of the British government its support for an independent Syria and a unified Arab world.

British and Free French Occupation of Syria and Lebanon.

On the morning of June 8, allied troops, consisting of Free French, British, Australian and Indian forces, crossed the border into Syria from Transjordania and Palestine under the command of General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson and General Georges Catroux. The Vichy troops, numbering about 45,000, offered some resistance, while the Free French and British troops tried to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed. On June 21, the capture of Damascus by the Allied forces was announced, but the Vichy forces held out for some time longer in Beirut where they had their greatest strength. Disorders among the natives in Beirut, who welcomed the thought of liberation from Vichy, forced the Vichy representatives to abandon their attempts at resistance, and on July 12 an armistice was concluded, followed on July 14 by an accord between the British Commander in Chief and General de Verdilhac as French representative, which brought about the end of hostilities in Syria and Lebanon. The British and Free French Forces secured the use of airports and harbors; the existing war stocks were surrendered to them, and the soldiers of the Vichy army received the right to join the Free French or to be repatriated.

Syria and Lebanon were incorporated into the British and Allied trading area, and herewith their economic situation immediately alleviated. Foodstuffs, coal and gasoline were immediately shipped to the territory; currency was pegged at 8.83 Syrian pounds to the pound sterling. Meanwhile Captain Oliver Lyttleton, the British minister of State in the Middle East, exchanged letters with Gen. Charles de Gaulle, the Free French leaders, assuring France of a predominant position in Syria and Lebanon over any other European power after these territories had been given their independence, and declaring to the French that Britain had no interest in Syria or Lebanon except to win the war and no desire to encroach in any way upon the position of France.

Syria Proclaimed Independent.

On Sept. 16 the Free French authorities proclaimed the independence of Syria, and Sheik Tajeddine Hassani became president of the republic. General Catroux declared that 'Free France, acting in agreement with her ally, Great Britain, has undertaken to terminate the mandate and grant Syria the status of an independent sovereign state and to guarantee the new state by treaty.' Some of Syria's leading nationalists who were outstanding in the former negotiations for independence with France were included in the coalition cabinet which represented practically all the parties. Hassan Hakeem became prime minister and also minister of finance, the famous nationalist Faiz Bey Khoury minister of foreign affairs, Abdul Ghaffar el Atrash, a well known Druze leader, minister of defense; the whole cabinet of eight members represented a grouping of all the different elements in the country and declared its intention of building up a strong Syrian army to fight on the side of the allies for the independence of Syria. King George VI sent a message of congratulations to the president of Syria, and the latter expressed his satisfaction and pointed out that Syria's independence was the first step towards similar general concessions by the democratic powers to cement the foundation for the longed-for Arab unity.

Lebanon Receives Independence.

The independence of Syria was followed on Nov. 26 by a proclamation by Catroux establishing the independence of Lebanon and terminating the mandate over the country. On Nov. 29 an official announcement by the Department of State of the United States declared that the American Government and people have always sympathized with the natural and legitimate aspirations of the peoples of Syria and the Lebanon. 'This Government therefore welcomes any steps towards the realization of these aspirations, chief among which is, of course, the full enjoyment of sovereign independence.' In view of the fact, however, that there exist treaties between France and the United States concerning Syria and the Lebanon, formal recognition of the independent states was not possible before the termination of the present War especially in view of the fact that by the end of November 1941 the United States Government had not yet recognized officially the Free French as the representatives of France and still maintained diplomatic relations with the Vichy government. But the Department of State added that it was hopeful that, as soon as international conditions permit, negotiations will be undertaken enabling the American Government to extend formal recognition to Syria and the Lebanon. Thus at the end of 1941, as a result of the events of the Second World War, the Arab countries of Syria and Lebanon, which had become mandated territories as a result of the First World War, had gained their independence and were looking forward, in case of the victory of the democracies, to being united with other Arabic countries in a new Arabia which would take its place beside other free nations. At the same time, by securing the use of the Syrian harbors, airports and means of communication, the British and Allied forces strengthened their strategic position in the Near East considerably. They had acquired for the defense of the territory from Tobruk to Teheran, from the Nile to the Caspian Sea, a contiguous bloc which gave them the advantage of the inner lines of communications against a German drive directed towards the Persian Gulf or the Red Sea. Thus the year 1941 ended, as far as the Syrian territory was concerned, with the distinct improvement in the strategic position of the British and the Allies, and with great progress in the achievement of Syrian independence. With America's entrance into the war in December 1941 the President of the Syrian Republic declared in an official press statement that 'we Syrians associated ourselves heart and soul and with our full resources with the efforts of the United States to liberate humanity from the forces of evil and to restore their liberties to the countries robbed of them.' He appealed to Syrians in the western hemisphere to cooperate fully in the democratic struggle. See also IRAN; IRAQ; PALESTINE.