ing heavy losses.

The Arabs also were preparing for action. In March a "Pan-Syrian
Congress" met at Damascus, unanimously declared the independence of
Syria, and elected Feisal king. This announcement electrified all the
Arab provinces. In the French-occupied coastal zone riots broke out
against the French; in Palestine there were "pogroms" against the Jews,
whom the Arabs, both Moslem and Christian, hated for their "Zionist"
plans; while in Mesopotamia there were sporadic uprisings of tribesmen.

Faced by this ominous situation, the "mandatories" took military
counter-measures. The French took especially vigorous action. France now
had nearly 100,000 men in Syria and Cilicia, headed by General Gouraud,
a veteran of many colonial wars and a believer in "strong-arm" methods.
On July 15 Gouraud sent Feisal an ultimatum requiring complete
submission. Feisal, diplomatic to the last, actually accepted the
ultimatum, but Gouraud ignored this acceptance on a technicality and
struck for Damascus with 60,000 men. Feisal attempted no real
resistance, fighting only a rearguard action and withdrawing into the
desert. On July 25 the French entered Damascus, the Arab capital,
deposed Feisal, and set up thoroughgoing French rule. Opposition was
punished with the greatest severity. Damascus was mulcted of a
war-contribution of 10,000,000 francs, after the German fashion in
Belgium, many nationalist leaders were imprisoned or shot, while Gouraud
announced that the death of "one French subject or one Christian" would
be followed by wholesale "most terrible reprisals" by bombing
aeroplanes.[186]

Before this Napoleonic "thunder-stroke" Syria bent for the moment,
apparently terrorized. In Mesopotamia, however, the British were not so
fortunate. For some months trouble had patently been brewing, and in
March the British commander had expressed himself as "much struck with
the volcanic possibilities of the country." In July all Mesopotamia
flamed into insurrection, and though Britain had fully 100,000 troops in
the province, they were hard put to it to stem the rebellion.

Meanwhile, the Allies had occupied Constantinople, to force acceptance
of the draft treaty of peace. Naturally, there was no resistance,
Constantinople being entirely at the mercy of the Allied fleet. But the
silence of the vast throngs gathered to watch the incoming troops filled
some Allied observers with disquietude. A French journalist wrote: "The
silence of the m