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 UNDER THE FRENCH MANDATE

in June 1920 Faysal, who had become the symbol of Syrian aspirations, returned to Damascus from his second trip to Europe fully convinced that England and France were in no mood to accept a fully independent status for Syria. More than that, he had agreed with Georges Clemen- ceau to accept assistance in administrative, financial and technical affairs. But an over-enthusiastic Syrian congress, convened at Damascus, rejected (March 8) this mild form of mandatory tutelage and proclaimed Faysal king over an expanded Syria c in its natural boundaries' 'from the Taurus to Sinai'. In the congress Syria and Palestine were adequately represented, but not Lebanon. On July 14 the French high commissioner Henri Gouraud, one-armed hero of the Marne, addressed an ultimatum to King Faysal demanding unconditional acceptance of French authority and shortiy afterwards moved his forces upon Damascus. The seasoned troops had no difficulty in scoring a victory at Maysalun against a handful of hastily assembled, poorly trained Syrian soldiers. Faysal left the country and was later installed by the British as king over Iraq, where his grandson, until 1958, ruled. On September 1, 1920, Greater Lebanon was declared by Gouraud.

Syria itself presented well-nigh insurmountable difficulties. It was at perhaps the lowest ebb in its history politically, economically, socially and spiritually. It had no developed institutions for self-rule, no proper implementation for democratic procedure, and its people had no experience in parliamentary affairs or modern civil service. The man- datory was from the outset confronted with the task of literally creating administrative and judiciary organs of Rh