Coll 6/43 'Pan Arab Congress 1933. Attitude of H.M.G. to a Pan Arab Movement' [‎373v] (747/1144)

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2. The Nationalist delegation, which consisted of H ashem-e 1 - A t a si ( ea e ),
and comprising Saadalla-el-Gabri, Jamil Mardan, Faris-el-Khoun, a s aunc
Nationalist leaders, left Damascus on Saturday, the 21st March, and arn\e(
Paris on the 26th. Mardan is a graduate of French high schools m Paris ana
Faris-el-Khouri (Christian) is a graduate of the American University ot Beirut.
3. The chief aim of the delegation is to get the French Government to
recognise the union of the five different republics, into which Syria was ivi e
by the French authorities, into one State with Damascus as capital. ®
State is to include the Nasairiya country of the north and the Druses o e)e
Hauran, and the efforts of the French to get these two distinct races to ask
for their districts to remain under the present system of administration nave
failed. The Syrians further aspire to a free Constitutional Government am
their own army, with provisions for a military agreement and nnancia
co-operation; also to membership of the League of Nations. . ,
4. The position of Mount Lebanon will now be a source ol anxiety to bom
the new Syrian Government and to the French.
5. Lebanon, as may be remembered, was granted an autonomous Government
in I860 guaranteed by the six Great European Powers. Care was .taken to
include in it as few Mahometan districts as possible, with the result that it became
an essentially Christian State (with about one-tenth of the population compose
of Druses).^ ^ mnce t(X)k over the man date, they added to Lebanon the whole
stretch of coast from Tripoli to Tyre, with a considerable part of the hmtei lam .
This considerably increased the Mahometan population—so that nearly halt the
population of “Greater Lebanon is now Mahometan and Druse. ^
7. When the French Government’s recent decision as regards Syria became
known, a movement was at once started in the towns of Greater Lebanon which
had been detached from the pre-war Syria, and added to Greater Lebanon,
clamouring for their return to their original States, or, altei natively, the union
of all Lebanon with the new Syrian- Federation. The majority of the Maronites
of Lebanon, now the privileged ruling class, will oppose this movement but all
the Mahometans for racial, religious and political reasons will continue to agitate
for reunion with Syria. Wdth them are now ranged most of the non-Maionite
Christians and the'commercial classes of all creeds, who foresee a dark future,
economically and financially, for this small State if not amalgamated in the future
Syrian State. ...
1 8. The French Government in Lebanon is taking drastic action against
those clamouring for union with Syria—proscribing the formation of such
parties as illegal, and forbidding newspapers to discuss the subject. This will
probably have the opposite effect. Further, the French Government has
expressed its willingness to resuscitate the Lebanon Parliament abolished some
years ago and substituted by a small sinecure Parliament.
9. ' News received by private letters from Syria tends to show that the
French were forced to alter their front for the following reasons :—
(1) The fear of troubles in Europe. The change of policy was declared
onlv a few days before the incidents on the Rhine.
(2) The unexpected and unusual tenacity of the Syrians in maintaining their
strike and in arranging for its advertisement throughout the whole
world.
(3) The great interest taken in the matter by the whole of the Mahometan-
Arab world, including the official protest by the Iraq Parliament and
the campaign by the Arabic press in Egypt, Palestine and Iraq.
10 Some persons add to the above the desire of the French to render the
negotiations in Cairo difficult for the British; whether this is true or not will
appear from the result of the negotiations in Paris and the extent of the self-
government granted by the French to Syria.
11. The interest taken in all Mahometan-Arab countries and the sympathy
shown to the Syrian cause have been immense. Iraq, Palestine and Egypt and
Hejaz have unanimously condemned the previous French line of policy, and
finally expressed their great pleasure and relief at the solution. On the occasion
of the anniversary of King Ghazi’s birthday on the 24th March great celebrations
were held in Damascus, Beirut and other Syrian towns. Contributions for the
help of Syrian sufferers are being collected in Iraq, Palestine and Egypt.