I 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION -PROBLEMS 
 
 "Nations in Rebirth '--a series of articles prepared for THE LITERARY DIGEST and 
 
 especially designed for School Use 
 
 SYRIA 
 
 PEACE SETTLEMENT OF SYRIA — Not the least of 
 the pi'oblems presented before the Peace Conference 
 was the settlement of Syria, observes the London Sphere, 
 which points out that the condition under which the British 
 Army evacuated northern Syria rests upon the Anglo-French 
 agreement of 1916. This agreement provides that Palestine 
 is to be under British protection; Syria, properly so-called, under 
 that of France. The four great cities of Damascus, Aleppo, 
 Horns, and Hamah, it is provided, are to be autonomous as 
 Arab states under the protection of France. Tlie agreement 
 has been amplified and 
 modified. The Sphere goes 
 on to say, so that Meso- 
 ])otamia and Cilicia are 
 included in it. We read 
 further that: 
 
 riMiii tlie London "' Splifio."' t.'opv-n'glit^d'iii U. S. A. by tile \pw Yoi-k Herald Company. 
 
 DrVIHIOX OF RESPONHIBrLITY JX SYRIA AND MESOPOTAMIA. 
 
 France to control North Syria and Cilicia, Britain to exercise, supremacy in :Meso- 
 potamia and Palestine, wliile tlie Syrian island, witli Aleppo, Honrs, Hamah, and 
 Damascus, is to be aiitononioiis iinilor European protection. 
 
 ■'Britain -will exercise 
 a protectorate over all 
 Mesopotamia up to and 
 including Mosul, while 
 Cilicia is provisionally to 
 be occupied by French 
 troops. This provisional 
 arrangement is indicated 
 on the accompanying map. 
 France's claims to exercise 
 a dominant voice in Syria 
 are based, according to 
 Mr. Brenier, of the Mar- 
 seilles Chamber of Com- 
 merce, chiefly upon the 
 grounds (1) that French 
 commercial interests are 
 by far the most important 
 in the country; (2) that 
 France has done much in 
 protecting the Lebanon 
 Christians from destruc- 
 tion, and has achieved ad- 
 mirable work in the direction of education and medical assis- 
 tance; (3) that France has sentimental traditions dating back 
 to the days of the Crusades. 
 
 "Setting aside (3), in which France can fairly be rivaled by 
 other nations, France has a fair claim to a predominant voice 
 in the settlement of Syria. In France's claim it appears that 
 Britain fully acquiesces, with the proviso that Arab riglits 
 are to be respected. It is in settling the precise extent of these 
 rights difficulties may arise. Prince Faistd, speaking for his 
 own people, is naturally anxious to obtain for them the maxi- 
 mum of consideration, and the services which he rendered in the 
 conquest of Syria add weight to his words. Certain French 
 organs were scarcely in good taste in instituting comparisons 
 between this prince of a great house and the shifty Moorish 
 chieftain, Raisuli. j\lc:(nwhile the distribution of responsibility 
 detailed on the map is proceeding. The French commander 
 in-chief is to be General Gouraud, an appointment '\\ hieh prom- 
 ises the best results, for no man has won a higher re])titation in 
 all respects during the world-war than this great soldier." 
 
 A FRENCH PICTURE OF SYRIA — Spirited discussion of 
 French and British claims in SjTia has been engaged in by 
 French and British editors; and the attainment of accord by the 
 two governments is welcomed on both sides. Between loyal 
 allies, writes Gustave Herve in his Paris newspaper, La Vidoire, 
 mistinderstandings do not last long when a' concerted effort is 
 made to dispel them. As everybody knows, he says, Syria is 
 that vast sun-burned territory, east of the Mediterranean, 
 which is spread out between Asia Minor and Egypt. One 
 enters Syria through Cilicia at the port of Alexandrett^-; -through 
 
 Lebanon at the port of Beirut; through Palestine, which is 
 situated farther south, by the ports of Caifa and Jaffa. The 
 seaboard is the least arid and most fertile section of Syria. 
 Travel a liundred kilometers from the coast and you find desert 
 land, a sort of Asiatic Sahara, which no one would covet if it 
 were not that, at the entrance to the desert, there are to be 
 found in oases four Arabian cities, of which Damascus and 
 Aleppo are the most famous. 
 
 Beyond this desert, continues Mr. Herve, far toward the east, 
 we find Mcsopotainia, the land of Mosul and of Bagdad, 
 
 where verdure and culture 
 reappear, thanks to the 
 waters of the Tigris and 
 tie Euphrates. Before 
 the war Syria, as also 
 Mesopotamia, constituted 
 a.|i important part of the 
 Turkish Empire. The 
 i^rabs, who formed the 
 i^ajority of the popula- 
 tion, are nearly all Mus- 
 sjilmans. On the coast of 
 liebanon there is an im- 
 portant group of Syrian 
 Catholics, the Maronites. 
 ' SYRIA IN WAR-TIME 
 —-In 1915 when the Ger- 
 man-Turkish forces men- 
 aced Egypt Great Britain 
 succeeded in winning the 
 Arab population in the 
 Syrian region to fight 
 against the Turks. This 
 objective was gained 
 through the mediation of 
 Prince Hussein, Arab chief of Mekka, who set as compensation 
 for his cooperation the following conditions: That England 
 favor the constitution of an Arab state, or a confederation of 
 Arab states, in the interior of Syria; with reservations for the 
 rights France could claim, notably in the coastal zone, and 
 reservations for the rights England could claim both in 
 Mesopotamia and in Palestine. 
 
 [ THE ANGLO-FRENCH AGREEMENT OF 1916— In May, 
 1916, Mr. Herve recalls, was concluded the agreement by which 
 England obtained on the coast of Syria all of Palestine in order 
 to safeguard the approaches to Egypt. France obtained the 
 coast of Cilicia with the ports of Mersina and Alexandretta, and 
 the coast of Lebanon with the port of Beirut. Of the interior 
 of Syria Mr. Herve relates that the section situated at the rear 
 of Palestine became a zone of British influence; the section 
 back of Lebanon — that is, the country of fertile oases and of the 
 great Arabian religious centers of Aleppo and Damascus, became 
 a zone of French influence. 
 
 This means, as Mr. Herve notes, that the French will be 
 the natural protectors and kindly tutors of the Arabs in this 
 part of Syria and will furnish them such cooperation as they 
 desire. As to the Emir Feisul, ruler of the Arab state, Mr. 
 Herve believes that as the result of the good counsels of 
 British advisers, he will treat with the French, under whose 
 moral influence he governs, "neither as an enemy, nor as a 
 negligible quantity." 
 
The-^iterary Digest for January 24, 1920 41 
 
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 J i