Sea of Revolt

Even acts of supreme violence lose their power to shock when repeated a sufficient number of times at a sufficient distance. Ever since the French League Mandate was established over Syria (1922) the rebellious Druses and other savage natives have been selling their lives dearly almost daily in guerilla attacks upon the French Army of Occupation. For eight months the French garrison at Damascus has bombarded that city or its environs almost nightly (TIME, Nov. 9 et seq.). Scarcely a morning dawns that French airplanes do not drone aloft to release bombs. At Aleppo, Horns, Hama, Seraand, Suedia and Salkhad other French garrisons defend themselves by similar means. French semi-armored trains and auto-convoys ply with grim regularity this sea of revolt. When a lone Frenchman ventures forth, a scimitar flashes or a crudely cast bullet dumdums into his flesh. But Syria is far from Europe, farther from the U.S.

Last week impartial civilians estimated the "bombardment loss" in Damascus, since the original or "heavy" bombardment of last October, at $6,000,000. One third of the city is in ruins. Throughout the remaining two thirds, life has become a bare existence. Thomas T. Topping, able Associated Press correspondent at Damascus, no beardless alarmist, cabled last week: "The situation in Damascus today is unparalleled in world history."

Significance. The Jebel Druses, numbering some 6,000 fighting men under command of Sultan El Atrash Pasha, have sufficiently demonstrated their ability to keep the 20,000 French and French colonial troops sent against them from pacifying Syria. It is conceded by experts that with 30,000 more French troops, General Andreas could probably wipe out the Druses.