The Future of Syria In a short time the French
mandate over Syria and the Lebanon will terminate ; but the condition of Syria hardly inspires the hope that she is now able to stand by herself. In itself, this is a severe criticism of twenty years of French mandatory government ; but the fault lies even more in the complicated structure of Arab States established by the post-War settlement. Syria has been separated from the Lebanon, which in addition has been extended to inclUde Tripoli ; she has lost Alexandretta and the plain of Antioch, by the Franco-Turkish establishment of the state of the Hatay, and there is a demand for separation from the border- land of the Euphrates and Iraq. Syria proper, if she becomes an independent State, will be reduced to 2,000,000 poverty- stricken Arabs, cut off from the sea, without an army or. an administration, inhabiting the Damascus oasis and a fringe of arable land extending northward to Aleppo. It is suggested, by a correspondent who describes this state of affairs in The Times, that the problem should be overcome by restoring the unity of Syria, Palestine, and Transjordan ; the satisfac- tion this would give the Arabs, to whom the dignity' of Damascus is of some importance, might make it easier to secure a satisfactory settlement of the Jewish problem in Palestine.
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