was unable to hold back, and he organized a Syrian Cabinet
under Riza Pasha and did his best to enforce discipline through-
out his dominions where compulsory military service had been
reintroduced on Dec. 21 1919. The authority of Damascus was,
however, unable to restrain the outbreak of Arab Nationalist
enthusiasm which the formation of the kingdom of Syria aroused.
Antioch was taken from its small French garrison on March 20,
there was anti-European trouble from the Amanus to Jerusalem
(see PALESTINE) , and Arab officers entered into renewed relations
with the Nationalist Turks of Angora. As early as Dec. u 1919
Ramadhan ibn Shalash, the Arab governor of Raqqa, instigated
by Angora, had made common cause with a Kurdish freebooter,
Ibrahim Pasha Milli, and had attacked Deir ez Zor, from which,
although hi the French sphere of influence, the British had not
yet withdrawn. The Emir Faisal immediately dismissed Ramad-
han, but he became contumacious, declined any longer to
recognize the authority of Damascus and openly adhered to the
Nationalist Turks. His Arab successor in Raqqa, Maulud Pasha,
was equally disloyal, and throughout the summer disturbances
in both French and British areas were actively fomented by him
and other disobedient adherents of the Damascus Government.
More vigorous steps were taken by the Nationalist Turks
of Angora. Not content with conducting a campaign of ex-
termination against the Armenians in Cilicia where the French
were not strong enough militarily to occupy the whole province
in the face of the formidable Turkish forces operating against
them and the Armenians, the Government of Angora invaded
northern Syria itself. Aintab was attacked in strength on April i
1920. It was relieved by a French column with some difficulty on April 15-16, but, when the relieving troops were withdrawn on April 28, the siege was resumed on April 30. It was relieved a second time on May 22, and an armistice was concluded on May 29 by which the French evacuated the citadel and established themselves in a fresh position. They were again attacked by the Turks and relieved for a third time on Aug. n. This time the French were strong enough to attack in their turn, although un- able entirely to invest the Turks, who had occupied the citadel as part of their position. After long-drawn operations, during which the Turkish mines in one of the piers of the great bridge of the Bagdad railway over the Euphrates at Jerablus were exploded by lightning and two spans of the bridge wrecked, the French were successful, and Aintab was once more made safe on Feb. 10
1921. During this period its pop. is supposed to have decreased by some two-thirds to 25,000. Nor were the disturbances in the N. confined to the Aintab area, apart from the campaign in Cilitia. Nationalist Turks and Syrians at the beginning of Dec. raided as far S. as Jebele on the coast 14 m. S. of Latakia, and farther E. a force of Nationalist Turks established themselves near the newly fixed boundary between Syria and Mesopotamia and tried to stir up unrest among the desert tribes.
In the S. the existence of an independent state at Damascus with Nationalist aspirations to absorb all Syria and the Lebanon, and unwilling to admit French influence or recognize any French mandate, was likely to prove an uneasy neighbour the more so as the Emir Faisal had declined on two occasions (March 27 and May 8) to repair to Paris at the invitation of the Allies to explain the situation. The Emir maintained that it was only by remaining at Damascus that he could hope to restrain the more extreme Nationalists from launching a wholesale attack upon French territory. As soon, therefore, as Gen. Gouraud had an adequate force at his command with which to enforce the authority given to France as Mandatory for Syria on behalf of the League of Nations, he made ready to impose it upon Damascus, when in June 1920 the Emir Faisal was beset by difficulties. Himself one of the Ashraf, a son of the King of the Hejaz, he found it increasingly difficult to restrain the Nationalist Syrians, the pro-Turk panislamists and the Patriarchalist tribesmen who were traditionally hostile to any authority which sought to stand between them and their prey in the cultivated lands. In June the Cabinet of Riza Pasha fell, largely on the question of the relations between Syria and the Europeans particularly the French, and Hashim Bey Attassi took office. At that time
in the discussions of the budget in the French Chamber it appeared that France, while proposing to allot some 3,700,000 for the : expenses of the High Commissionership of Syria and some 440,000 for propaganda to be directed against the extremist doctrines of those opposed to her rule, was ready to grant a subvention of 800,000 to the Emir Faisal provided that he co- operated whole-heartedly in the execution of the Mandate. The Emir was, however, in no position to do so, owing to the intractability of the Nationalist leaders who threatened to depose or murder him if he ventured to abate in any way from the extreme i of their ambitions, wholly incompatible wi th any foreign Mandate. At the same time the economic situation of Syria was bad, and the taxes were extremely high for example, the camel tax in Syria was 3 (3 is. 6d.) per beast as against i rupee (is. 4d.) per beast in Mesopotamia, and the sheep tax was 36 P.T. (75.) against 8 annas (Sd.) and were, moreover, farmed, owing to the absence of the necessary fiscal machinery for ensuring official collection. Thus the Emir's Government was regarded with sus- picion by the Nationalists and those who were opposed to any accommodation with France, or indeed any European Power.
On July 14 1920 Gen. Gouraud informed the Emir that French authority was to be enforced and that he would assume control of the Syrian railways hitherto run by the Arab administration, parts of which had not been working since January. This in- timation was none too soon, as it was known that the Arab general, Rushdi Bey, in command of the 3rd Arab Div. and governor of Aleppo, who had formerly been in the Ottoman service, was in active communication with the Nationalist Turks of Angora for the purpose of arranging joint operations against the French. Almost at the same time Gen. Gouraud found it necessary to arrest nine members of the Administrative Council of the Lebanon, apparently for conspiring with Syrian Nationalists to make it impossible for France to exercise her Mandate.
The Emir Faisal was willing to comply with Gen. Gouraud's wishes, but the Syrian Nationalists, miscalculating their strength, opposed the advance of Gen. Goybct's column which was sent to occupy Damascus. They even attacked the Emir Faisal, delayed the final message of submission sent by the Emir and his Cabinet to Gen. Goybet, and by ill-judged hostilities com- pelled the French to defeat them smartly at Khan Meisehm on the road through the mountains N.W. of Damascus on July 24, and to enter that city next day as conquerors rather than as protecting allies, thus bringing about the downfall of the Emir, whom the French held responsible for the resistance of the Nationalists although it had been offered in defiance of his authority and policy. The Emir's last Cabinet fell with him, and the French, who inflicted a fine of 8500,000 (10,000,000 frs.) upon the country, caused a new administration to be formed under 'Ala ed Din er Rubi, while the Emir Faisal and his family withdrew from Damascus on July 28, going to Haifa, where he remained until Aug. 4, when he left for Europe.
The suppression of the Nationalists at Damascus did not immediately bring peace to the country, as the French were unable adequately to control the Hauran, and on Aug. 20 Bedouin raiders stopped a train at Khirbet el Ghazali on the Hcjaz railway and murdered the Syrian prime minister 'Ala ed Din er Rubi, Ata el Ayyubi, the Minister of the Interior, and 'Abdur- rahman Yusuf, President of the Council of State; for some time afterwards railway communication was hazardous in that area, and trains were generally protected by a guard of soldiers in armoured trucks at either end.
On Sept. i 1920 Beirut became an autonomous district of the Greater Lebanon (Grand Liban) , which was enlarged from its former extent under the Turks so as to embrace all Biqa' or the Coelesyria composed of the Turkish kazas of Hasbeya Rasheya, Biqa' and Baalbek (which, originally allotted to " O.E.T.A. West," were left to the administration of O.E.T.A. East by Gen. Allenby as having been largely liberated by Arab troops), and the coast territories between Palestine and the Nahr "Akkar; and next day the former Turkish sanjak of Latakia and the north- ern parts of that of Tripoli were formed into a new administrative area of Ala wiya { Terr itoire des Alaouites). In the N. the Turkish
