In Syria

En route to France aboard the little steamship Sphynx, General Maurice Sarrail, the recalled French High Commander to Syria (TIME, Nov. 9), employed a graceful and evasive "formula" for sidestepping ail questions regarding his much criticized bombardment of Damascus. Said he to correspondents who boarded the Sphynx at Alexandria, "Surely you need not question me, gentlemen. Let the Sphynx answer. Look around the boat and you will find many sources of truth."

A speedily discovered "source" proved to be the official report of General Gamelin, successor to General Sarrail until the new Provisional High Commander, General Duport, was able to reach Damascus. It read, in part, as follows:

"The Military Command is conscious of having obtained in the minimum time at a minimum cost the result sought: preventing the extension of a subversive movement [at Damascus] which might have easily developed into a revolution of the first order."

Certain "spokesmen" aboard the Sphynx "quoted" General Sarrail as follows: "I had the situation well in hand in Syria. . . . Then we were attacked at Damascus by rebels . . . and as I could not surrender the town there had to be fighting in the streets. . . . The British consul very nearly provoked a panic when I told him that I must bombard the Moslem quarters of the town. . . . The romantic versions of the affair in the English press indicate that somebody wanted to give the public its money's worth. . . . The French Government has always received full reports from me, except during three successive days when the cable service was interrupted . . . . I stopped the pillage; that was the extent of my military oppression . . . and I am conscious of having done my best to fulfill the French mandate in Syria."

Upon his arrival at Marseilles, General Sarrail was directly quoted as follows: "The truth is that the Druses, the Pan-Arab party and Abd-el-Krim, are all one. The recent events in Syria are a corollary to the revolts in April and May in Morocco."

Cables from Damascus reported that the city was last week undergoing practically a state of siege. The French were naturally dominant in the urban quarters by virtue of their artillery, but encircling bands of tribesmen were said to have kept up a practically uninterrupted series of raids on the suburbs. By night large parties of Druses apparently attacked and destroyed portions of the waterworks of Damascus. Over 25,000 of the citizens were estimated to have fled at the beginning of last week.

Despatches asserted that outside of Damascus the French forces held a secure grip upon only six cities on the railway between Aleppo in the North and Dera in the South. The Druses were said to be in control of an area as large as the state of New Jersey between Mount Hermon and Wadi Ajami. At Aleppo Miss Elizabeth Sill of Pittsburgh, in charge of the local Near East Relief, was reported to have been appealed to for help and protection by literally thousands of refugees.

Upon reaching Paris, the General was met at the train by Senator Henri de Jouvenel, who will shortly go out to Syria, succeeding both General Sarrail and General Duport (TIME, Nov. 16) in inaugurating a French civilian regime in Syria. The meeting was not cordial. Snapped M. Sarrail, "You should not have troubled to come to meet me." Replied M. de Jouvenel, "As you like, but I have thought it my duty to seek information everywhere, and have sought the advice of Generals Gouraud and Weygand, your predecessors." Barked the ungracious General, "That should be enough!" Later he consented to discuss Syrian affairs in secret with M. de Jouvenel; and held a long conference with Premier Painleve. To the correspondents he said nothing.