Successes in Syria
The campaign in Syria now appears to be moving more quickly to our advantage, and it is satisfactory to learn from Mr. Churchill himself that no restraints on political grounds are imposed on the Generals, and that he has specially enjoined them to be guided by military considerations alone. At the outset, when there was the hope that many of the French under the Vichy command would come over to us, it was reasonable to advance deliberately ; but in the face of continued stiff resistance there could be no argument but that of full war. On the British left and right the advance continues, though the French force that had created a salient in the centre at Merj Ayoun clung on obstinately for some time. On the coast, the Australians, supported by the fire of destroyers from the sea, have been pushing on toward the port of Beirut, which has itself been heavily bombed. North and west of Damascus British, Free French and Indian troops are on and astride of the road that leads to Beirut westwards and Homs in the north. Of the greatest importance is the swift move of a British mechanised force from Iraq upon Palmyra, far to the north, east of Horns. It is admitted in the Vichy Press that the advance from Iraq puts all the French forces further south in a dangerous position.
