After two days of something like pandemonium, the powers that were recognised the necessity of imposing some sort of restraint on the lawless elements, and two regiments of the Australian Mounted Division were stationed in the city for police duties. The Australian troopers speedily had the situation in hand, and the normal life of Damascus was resumed within forty-eight hours.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] Major-General Sir H.J.M. MacAndrew, K.C.B., Indian Army. He died from burns received in an accident at Aleppo in July 1919.
THE LAST PHASE
Arabian Syria extends northwards a little beyond Aleppo. A study of the place-names on the map will establish a fairly well-defined line, running from about Jerablus on the Euphrates to the sea near Antioch, north of which the Arabic names give place to Turkish. From the political point of view it was highly desirable that all the country south of this line should be in our hands before the Turks should have had enough, and ask for a cessation of hostilities. But Aleppo is a far cry from Damascus, 230 miles by the Rayak road, and it is doubtful whether the Commander-in-Chief had in his mind at this date so extended an enterprise as the capture of that city.
Strategically, however, an advance as far as Rayak and Beirût offered several advantages. The possession of Beirût would give us a good, if small, port, connected by rail and road with Damascus, thus greatly shortening our line of supply. And, with Rayak Junction in our hands, we should control the important broad-gauge line that runs northwards from this place, through Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, to join the Baghdad line at Muslimie.
The total destruction of the Turkish armies had ensured us freedom of movement at least as far as the line Rayak-Beirût, and the only obstacle to an advance lay in the weak and reduced condition of the Corps.