208 .4 Short History of the Middle East
breakdown of law and order'. It accordingly brought pressure1
upon the French to release and reinstate the imprisoned president
and ministers. Having reluctantly and sulkily accepted the in-
evitable, the French did transfer many services to the new govern-
ments, and by the end of 1944 the only important attribute still
withheld was the control of the locally-recruited Troupes Spe-
ciales, which was, however, of particular importance for Syrian and
Lebanese prestige. The French made these concessions with an ill
grace, and they execrated the British Minister, Sir Edward Spears,
and his staff for their unconcealed sympathy with theiationalists.
Sir Terence Shone, who succeeded Sir Edward Spears early in
1945, made every effort to improve relations between the French
and the local governments and bring negotiations to a satisfactory
conclusion. But the French demanded the right to maintain bases
and troops in both countries, apparently imagining that time had
stood still since 1936. On 17 May, nine days after VE-day, a
French cruiser arrived at Beirut with Senegalese troops on board.
The Syrian nationalists immediately assumed that military pressure
was about to be exerted on them; the French declared that the
troops were merely to replace others who were being repatriated;
the British made every effort to dissuade the French from dis-
embarking them at this delicate juncture, but De Gaulle, now in-
stalled in Paris as head of the provisional government, was char-
acteristically obstinate.2 The situation deteriorated rapidly,
riots and fighting occurred in the principal Syrian cities, and on
29 May the French repeated their exploits of twenty years earlier
by bombarding Damascus with aircraft and field-guns. Next day
the British military authorities received instructions to intervene
and restore order. As long as the war with Japan continued, Britain
could not allow the security of her line-of-communications to be
threatened by anti-European disorders which might spread to other
Middle Eastern countries. The French commander sulkily com-
plied with a British order to cease fire and confine his troops to
barracks, and order was restored. Relations between Britain and
France were very strained, the French again accusing the British of
1 Mons. R. Montagne declares that the talks between General Catroux and
:he Nationalists were at that moment progressing favourably. (International
Affairs, XXIII (1947), 120).
2 The French were faced at this moment by a local rising in Algeria in which
110 French citizens were massacred, and 1,500 Muslims killed in the subsequent
•eprisals. (R. Montagne, International Affairs, XXHI (1947), 47.)