France and the Levant
Mr. Eden's grave statement in the House of Commons on Wednes- d ty evening shcwed Low critical the position in the Levant had b.come ; with the French shelling Damascus from the air and mbarding it with 75's, what is virtually open war prevails. France, conscious of her recovered strength—recovered thanks mainly to Britain and the United States—and always sensitive about her prestige, is taking quite intolerable action, in face of the strongly and repeatedly expressed disapproval of her two Anglo-Saxon allies. The possibility of further deterioration of the situation is serious, for the
whole Arab world is being roused, and French indifference to the protests of this country in a matter in which this country is directly interested must gravely jeopardise the good understanding between Britain and France. Great Britain countersigned the French declara- tion of independence and cannot discard responsibility. The desire of France that her withdrawal should be preceded by the negotiating of a treaty ensuring certain special rights claimed by her is intelligibk enough, but such a treaty presupposes a thorough understanding between herself and the two States—such as existed between Britain and Iraq. But there is no such understanding. On the contrary, France's claims to air and sea-port bases, and to safeguards for her oil-pipe lines from Mosul, in addition to the preservation of her historic cultural interests, are viewed with profound suspicion, aggra- vated by the arrival of French reinforcements at the very moment when treaty negotiations were due to begin. The two Levantine Governments now stand firmly on the implementing of the promise of independence, and are unwilling that this should be coupled with a treaty which in their opinion would destroy the reality of inde- pendence. They were assured by General Catroux in 1940, after they had been freed from the Vichy regime, that they were thence- forward independent sovereign States, and they are unlikely at this time of day to accept derogations from their independence. It is important to make France's, way of withdrawal as easy as possible, but withdrawal there must be.
