Word: sarrail
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...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...
...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...
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...
...General Sarrail, the recalled French High Commander, was reported to have got through to Beirut on his way to Paris, whither he has been summoned to justify his ruthless methods against the Syrians. And the U. S. destroyers Coblan and Lamson arrived at Beirut to protect American interests. Several thousand refugees from Damascus, also at Beirut, were reported to be greatly alarmed lest famine should beset the relatives whom they had left behind...
...General Sarrail's official written report of the bombardment of Damascus reached Paris last week and estimated the casualties as follows: Europeans, none; French soldiers, 10; Revolutionaries, 200;* Armenians (killed by the insurgents...