Request by the Syrian Government for a United States military mission to train Syrian military and security forces ¹³

^13. For earlier reference to Syrian desire for an American mission to train the Syrian gendarmerie, see telegram 193, September 19, 1944, 10 p.m., from Beirut, Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. v, p. 780. The questions of whether the United States would be willing to be of direct assistance to Syria in organizing, equipping, and training a Syrian Army or whether the United States would be willing to urge the French Government to complete arrangements for the transfer of the Troupes Spéciales (French-controlled troops recruited in Syria and Lebanon) to the Syrian Government were raised informally with the Minister to Syria and Lebanon (Wadsworth) by the President of the Syrian Republic (Kuwatly) in conversations on January 4 and 5, 1945. In reporting these conversations in despatch 618, January 10 (received February 3), the Minister stated his reply was: “I did not believe my Government would wish to intervene actively in the problem of French-Syrian relations in its present form”. (890D.01/1–1045) For documentation on Franco-Syrian relations, see pp. 1034 ff.