The articles of Joseph Berger, founder of the Palestine Communist Party, on the post-Ottoman, Mandatory period of that region are a valuable background for understanding the today’s realities. The modern nation of Syria was formed in resistance to French imperialism after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War One. Here Berger looks at the Revolt of 1925 as it moves from its Druze base north and eastward with the French army razing Damascus, killing thousands.

‘The Second Stage of the Revolt in Syria’ by Joseph Berger from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 5 No. 81. November 19, 1925.

In Syria the month of September represented a sort of breathing space and time of preparation. The first period of the Syrian revolt which commenced with the rising of the Druse on 24th of July last, ended with the following result: the French expeditions against the Jebel Drus were completely wiped out by Soltan el Atrach’s cavalry: in Jebel Drus a national Arab government had been formed; the revolt, from a mere local affair, developed into an insurrectionary movement embracing the whole of Syria, the object of which was the abolition of the French mandate and the setting up of a national independent people’s government.

In September both camps, the French government in Beirut and the insurgents in Jebel Drus and the most important centres of Syria, began to prepare for fresh struggles. The French scraped together all reinforcements of colonial troops in France and in Morocco which could be spared by General Petain, sent the renowned General Gamelin to the Syrian front, proclaimed a state of siege in the inner Syria provinces, arrested all suspected and “uncertain elements”, established special courts and erected high gallows in the market places in the towns, for which zealous military detachments supplied ever fresh victims from the ranks of the “mountain bandits”.

For the rest, General Sarrail, the French High Commissioner, reassured his superiors regarding the security obtaining in the country and made a cheap advertisement for himself and the “brave French officers” out of the so-called “relief of Sueida”, which constituted an insignificant episode. Finally, the preparation of the French was expressed in bombastic appeals, in which the population were promised the joys of paradise if they would only refrain from revolt, and the most terrible punishments were threatened in the event of their venturing to take up arms against the mandatory power.

The activity of the insurgent leaders was less demonstrative and more thorough. On the Drus front they avoided every encounter til General Gamelin allowed himself to be enticed into taking the same rash step which many Generals had taken before him: to proceed into the interior of the impassable Jebel Drus. At the same time the movement was organised throughout the whole country. Throughout the whole length and breadth of Syria, here in Deir-es-Zor, in the edge of the desert, there in Aleppo, in the extreme North, there in the heart of the country, in the neighbourhood of Hama, Homs and Damascus well-armed bands sprang up as if out of the ground, who, being very mobile, annihilated French posts, destroyed communications, carried the message of revolt from one end of the country to the other. Against each of these bodies of franc-tireurs, troops had to be employed, who mostly returned home without having accomplished anything, as the Arab cavalry detachments disappeared in good time in the boundless desert or in the precipitous mountains.

These pin-pricks first made the French authorities nervous, then furious. If a town, or a district was visited by one of these bands, then the French officers gave vent to their helpless rage on the peaceful population of this district. Whole villages were simply destroyed by means of aeroplanes, artillery and machine guns; “suspected” parts of a town were demolished and the population were forced to pay severe contributions and fines. The French were the best allies of the leaders of the Syrian revolt: they began the war against the whole population of Syria, provoked even the most peaceable sections of the population to revolt.

The revolt had another powerful ally: not for years has the economic position of Syria been so wretched as in this Autumn. In addition to the bad harvest which the Syrian peasantry suffered this year, there came the brutally enforced payment of the agrarian taxes by the French which were to serve to balance the Syrian budget, as the French Finance Minister could not this year, as formerly, grant subsidies to make good the blunders made by incompetent officials in Syria. While the peasants were driven to revolt against the mandatory power by means of tombs and tax-extortion, the situation in the towns was absolutely desperate: the price of food increased by a hundred per cent, the depreciation of the Franc (one of the benefits which the French bestowed upon the sorely-tried Syrians, was the compulsory introduction of the French currency) played its part in completely undermining the position of the poorest section of the population wage workers, craftsmen, shopkeepers. In the towns hunger prevailed and instead of bread the French gave bullets and empty words.

At the beginning of October there commenced the second stage of the Syrian revolt. It was introduced by General Gamelin’s defeat in Jebel Drus. Three encounters: the attack upon the French camp near Musseifre, the second battle of Sueida and finally, the surrounding of the French troops near Ira (the interior of Jebel Drus) in a few days put an end to the long-proclaimed “victorious expedition” to Jebel Drus. Out of the 8000 French and colonial soldiers who set out with all their artillery, tanks and aeroplanes in order “to chastise” Soltan el Atrach, only a few hundred soldiers managed to escape the slaughter and were hastily transported with all the war material and artillery back to Damascus, abandoning the campaign against the Drus in order to restore order in the interior of the country.

The news of Gamelin’s defeat acted as a signal for a general revolt in the hinterland. The towns began to get into movement and the French rule was no longer recognised. Scarcely was the movement quelled in Hama (South of Aleppo), when the revolt broke out in Homs (South of this town). At the same time unrest was reported from Aleppo, Lataquich and even from Baalbek in Lebanon. “There is not a single part of Syria where peace prevails” admitted the French Syrian newspapers in the middle of October. The remnants of Gamelin’s army and the weak troops of Sarrail were entirely inadequate to cope with the movement.

The eyes of Syria were directed to Damascus. The capital town of Damascus with its 300,000 inhabitants, its revolutionary traditions from the earliest times (against the Turks and against the French), its enormous importance as one of the sacred towns of Islam, its importance as a political centre for the whole of Arabia, was long ready for revolt. As long as Gamelin and his army stood before the gates a revolt was doomed to immediate defeat. Now however, when the French army was vanquished and the Druse from the South were advancing against the capital, the moment for revolt had come. The French precipitated its outbreak by a great act of culture: The corpses of 30 insurgents who had fallen in the fight were publicly displayed as a warning example…

This was the challenge for the people to revolt. The Southern suburbs of Damascus which are inhabited by the poorer section of the population rose up, drove out or killed the French garrison troops in their quarters and advanced against the government buildings in the centre of the town. General Sarrail only escaped from the insurgents by the skin of his teeth. His palace was demolished. The French retired into the higher lying European quarter of Salchieh and the fortress of Damascus, whilst the insurgents erected barricades in their quarters and opened fire on the government buildings. On the following day French reinforcements arrived, man airship flew over the city and the French demanded that the town be immediately given into their hands. The insurgents refused. Thereupon the French, without any warning, began a furious bombardment of Damascus. The bombardment continued for fifty hours. Damascus was wrapped in smoke and flames and over the sea of fire there flew squadrons of aeroplanes sowing death and destruction.

When finally the French accepted the submission of the insurgents in Damascus the city presented a terrible picture of destruction and devastation: whole sections of the town were wiped out, thousands and tens of thousands were buried under the ruins of their houses, thousands were without shelter. Men, women, old folk and children lay dead or wounded amidst the ruins. Several portions of the town were still burning; houses continued to collapse. The most beautiful town of the Near East lay destroyed. Streams of blood flowed in the Streets, and above the pitiable picture of destruction there proudly waved the French tri-colour. The communique of the French General staff on the evening of 21st of October (after three days of street-fighting) laconically stated: “The revolt in Damascus has been suppressed, our losses are insignificant. All is quiet in Syria.”

Now the last sentence of the communique is certainly not in accordance with the fact. The destruction of Damascus by French artillery and airships has called forth enormous excitement in the whole East. The hatred against the French amounts to fanatism. The mass-slaughter in Damascus is summoning the whole world of Islam to the fight against French imperialism.

Under such circumstances the artful English consider it expedient to disassociate themselves as far as possible from France with whom only recently they were talking of a close brotherly alliance. The English press, from the “Morning Post” to the “Manchester Guardian”, condemns the French system and advises the French to make peace with the Arabs. Among other things, it is pointed out that Syria is better suited for an English mandate than for a French, and that Islam has its best friends in London.

It is hardly to be expected that the only result of the bloody sacrifices of the Syrian insurgents will be a change of mandates. The bombardment of Damascus is in no way the ending of the Syrian revolt, but only the conclusion of its second stage. The French are about to transport thousands of fresh soldiers from Morocco to Syria, while the slogan: “revenge for Damascus” adds fresh fuel to the flames of the revolt in Syria. The first centre of the revolt, Jebel Drus, is still entirely in the hands of the insurgents and the next few days and weeks will bring fresh and serious collisions. Much will depend upon whether the French proletariat will longer permit the mass murder in Syria which, by the way, has cost France alone very dear. Now, when the main front of French militarism has been transferred from Morocco to Syria, the French proletariat must understand how to enforce with all energy the evacuation of Syria by the French troops.

The first stage of the Syrian revolt was concluded by a military defeat of the French which rendered possible the spread of the revolt throughout the whole of Syria. The second stage ended with the crushing of the revolt of Damascus, with the destruction of Damascus. Under the ruins of this town, however, there lie buried along with thousands of victims of imperialist slaughter, the last remnants of prestige and sympathy which France had among the Arabs. To the military defeat of the French in August the bombardment of Damascus has added the greater defeat, the political defeat. French imperialism played out as a great factor of power in the Mohammedan East.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1925/v05n81-nov-19-1925-inprecor.pdf