With the initialling of the Allied armistice terms by the Vichy Commission at Acre, the five-weeks-old Syrian campaign has it is hoped come to an end, for all that is now necessary is for the armistice agreement to be ratified. While the Germans claim that the terms which the British and the Free French have imposed are onerous, the fact is that they represent the minimum which could possibly be insisted upon. There is certainly nothing which can be by any stretch of imagination considered dishonourable, and the Vich, troops give up the struggle under terms which convey not the slightest reproach. It is only natural that the Allies should insist upon the handing over of all Vichy war material, though the flight of the French naval units to a Turkish port suggests that this particular provision will not now be complied with. The effect appears to be about the same, for the Allied terms included a stipulation that ese units should remain under British d Free French control to be returned to a united France at the end of the war, while internment in a Turkish port for the duration just as surely removes them from operation.
There is nothing which justifies criticism of the provision requiring that war material on land shall be surrendered and that communications, bridges end the like shall not be damaged, French representation in ria will be continued under the de Gaul-and the nation will be granted the independence which has been promised to it. Where Vichy appears to have stuck over variier acceptance of the Allied terms was in connection with the provision giving French troops free choice as to whether they will join the de Gaulle movement or Joyal to Vichy. Here Marshal Petain's Government saw a de facto recognition of the Free French movement and took the obvious course of refusing to agree to the Allied proposals. The matter, however, was left in the hands of General Dentz who was clearly more influenced by the realities of the military situation than the rather nice point which swayed Vichy.
So an attempt on the part of the Germans to involve the British in the Levant, commencing first with the action of the rebel Iraqi Government, m which the Germans used Syrian bases in an abortive attempt to assist it, has been brought to a fruitless end. This armistice in fact sets the seal to the reverse which the Germans suffered when the Iraqi rebels were driven from power and the legitimate Government restored to office.. Their failure will have considerable repercussions throughout the Arab world and the prestige of the British, which never was in very serious danger will be enhanced by the successful manner in which the German intrigue has been so completely foiled. The benefits to be derived from regularizing the position in Syria are important. Not only is an immediate threat to the Suez Canal from the east averted, but the position of the British navy in the eastern Mediterranean has been considerably strengthened. A Syria controlled by an authority hostile to Great Britain and her Allies might have proved a serious inconvenience and its elimination is, therefore, a distinct advantage.
"While, naturally, considerable satisfaction must be felt at the successful conclusion of this campaign, there is no cause for any jubilation whatever. The whole matter has been thoroughly painful and distasteful to all Britons, and doubtless to those Free Frenchmen who must also have loathed what must have appeared to them no more than fratricidal strife. For the British, Australian and Indian troops who entered the war to fight on the side of France it was a grievous thing that force of circumstances led them to take up arms against Frenchmen fighting under the orders of the Nazi-controlled Vichy regime. It is to be hoped that whatever bitterness there may exist will be modified by the fact that fighting was not long drawn out and that the terms of the armistice do full honour to French arms and imposes upon General Dentz nothing which he could not with alb propriety accept, A painful episode has come to an end, and it is to be hoped that this war will not see any recurrence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.