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Show STATUS OF SYRIA PUCEPROBLi Arabs Ask Independence and Fear Becoming Colony Col-ony of France. Delegate Will Lay Appeal Before President Wilson in Paris. By HENRY M. IIYDE. (Copyright, 13 IS, by the Chicago Tribune.) PARIS, Dec. 1. Tho peace conference inevitably faces many complications and difficulties. Sonic of them seem most prions, some merely perplexing and pic-luresqufi. pic-luresqufi. Perhups the most amazing involves in-volves the future of tho ancient land of Syria. Tck In thu early days of the war Oreat Britain .-ind Franco made a secret treaty agreeing on the division of the Turk Mi empire in Asia. I" ndcr that agreement, Syria was to become a French folony. Later the Arabs of Syria went to war with'Turkey and became a gallant aily of Great Britain. The Arabs fought with brilliancy and it was an army under un-der command of Shereef Fiezeul which , actually captured Damascus. Now Mint, the war is won, the Arabs bitterly opposed to Syria becoming a French colony. They have f.nt Shereef Fiezoul to Furope to beg, almost to demand, de-mand, that their country be given its independence. in-dependence. The sherer is the son of the Amir of Mecca, and a lineal descendant of Mahomet and a most exalted personage to all followers of th prophet. To the two great powers involved, he has appealed ap-pealed in vain. France is unwilling to give up Its promised possession. Great Britain is willing, but bound by treaty ; with Us great French ally. Will See Wilson. Now the Arabs have sent Shereef Fie-reul Fie-reul to Paris to appeal to President Wil-pnn Wil-pnn to intervene in their behalf. Has . this crazy world produced any more amazing spectacle than that of this Arab thief tain coming from Asia to the palace pal-ace of Versailles to ask the president of the American republic to interfere between be-tween Great Britain and France in the interest of tho independence of Syria? And how could principles of self-dc- : ... termination of nations find clearer appli-1 cation? I Incidentally, an occurrence which re.al-v re.al-v contains serious possibilities gains additional ad-ditional color and strangeness from the " " " fact that Shereef Fiezeul's chief of staff is a young Englishman. Colonel Tw-rence, Tw-rence, who before the war was a modest . . undergraduate at Oxford. Colonel Lawrence, who as a distinguished distin-guished soldier. , serves a great Arab chieftain at a peace conference in Paris, is that not also amazing? The more im- i mediiLtely serious, if not dangerous, sit- ui;non involves Italy and Serbia and t;: Jo-Slavs. At a preliminary conference held in London three wi .k,s ago, at'end- by Premier Olcmenceau a tid M;ii na! Fo.i on Hie part of Krance, Premier Orlando Or-lando and Foreign .Minister Sonnino on ' (he part of Italy, and partki;,ated in by Lloyd (Jcoi ge and other members of the ! British cabinet, it in und-rstood that Italy was told it must modify and lessen its demand to Albania and the Dalmatian con .sr.. l-Jnt Italy is not willing, and has now announced it will not fix a date for de-mobiltzation de-mobiltzation of the Italian army. So fwr Italy seems inclined to play the part of the bad boy at tho peace conference. Tills is a good illustration of the part conflicting national ambitions inevitably will play in making the final peace agreement agree-ment difficult. The most formidable difficulty dif-ficulty of all is what may be called Anglo-American differences over President Wilson's freedom of the seas plan and tho final disposition of former German colonies captured and now held by the Allies. Opportunities which I have had to talk with Knglishmen of importance convince me that Oreat Britain will never consent to any diminution of her sea power. The British position la that the very life and existence of the inlands and their people depend on control of the Fea. The war with Germany has made, the whole English people more determined than ever to keep the white ensign of British sea power nailed to the top of the mast. Policy Fixed. On the disposition of German colonies, British policy is equally fixed. The British Brit-ish empire, ay leading Englishmen, does not want any more colonies, but in tho war with Germany, the great self-governing English dependencies played a heroic part. Australia. Soutii Africa and Canada Can-ada sent splendid armies overseas to fight for the mother country. The empire em-pire owes them a debt which has been sea lei I in blood. Now Australia says it must have the German islands in the pacific as a matter mat-ter of self-defence, and protection against future attacks. Great Britain says it must accede to these appeals because the dependencies have earned the right to make them, to say nothing of tho fact that a refusal might conceivably result in secession from the empire. There is a lively suspicion that at the London conference of three weeks ago a pretty thorough understanding was reached on various vexed questions which will be taken up by Great Britain and France and to some extent by Italy. That difficulties are expected, is indicated by the fact that while both countries have suspended censorship on press matter mat-ter going to the newspapers of the United States, they will continue to exercise throughout the peace conference the regular reg-ular wartime censorship on the newspapers newspa-pers of their own countries. |