REASONS FOR CLOSING THREE SYRIAN PROVINCES TO FOREIGNERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R000200570003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 14, 1947
• Content Type: IR

 Approved For Release 1999/09/08 : CIA-RDP82-00457R000200570003-8
CENTRAL i TPELL CE ]GE G
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The First Secretary of the British Legation in Damascus, G.A.F. Duxs,
is said to have made the following stateuents concerning the above
mentioned story.
(a)
Colonel Sterling had left Irna with a British civil engineer,
in order to act as guide during a trip to study irrigation
proposals. The two men had gone east from Hama and then
north, almost as far as Rusafa. The aim of the trip was
purely coxr rcial, and concerned the development of desert
land by irrigation.
(b) Shortly thereafter, the Harrca newspaper al Duha came out vdath
scare headlines, accusing Sterl:tg of s' rr ng-. up tribal affairs.
Subsequently, Solod saw Satdailah al-Jaabri, produced a copy
of al-Duha,, and asked a1-.Jabr1 if he had read the article, if
the s a events made in it were correct, and demanded an explanation.
41-Jabri later saw Colonel Sterling, as reported in paragraph 1,
and Sterling told him the story of the irrigation study trip.
Al-Jabri told this to Solod, who refused to accept Starling's
explanation.
6. When Dundas was told that Solod. hsid written a lottea' to the Foreign Office in protest of the irnc ydant, be said that he % as inclined to doubt it.
70
Dundas said that he thought trio tronabie had bo ; n acrlier, during
the events accompanying the arrest of Suiayman 11urshid (September 1946)
in Latakia. At this tine, Dundas pointed out, there was no prohibition
against foreigners going to the Alawite province. Solod had mentioned
to al-Jabri that he intondod to take a trip to Latakia
, and al-Jabri
had i3mrediately forbidden hire to go, in view of the cirearns takes 0
Solod ? us indignant, as a consequence., and was at present look.ing
for opportunities to charge discrimination., ,c-cording to Ihindas,
It was this c'; rcui ist -sec;, hanc1as thought, that had led the Syrian
goveri ,cent to escape from iarrassment by passinc, the docree Which
closed the northern areas to foreigners,
Approved For Release 1999/09/08 : CIA-RDP82-00457R000200570003-8