Above Beirut's Place des Canons last week R.A.F. planes roared and caracoled. Before the Grand Serail (Vichy Government headquarters) was drawn up a guard of British cavalry and Free French marines, all spit & polish. Inside, in the reception room, besides the conquering Allied generals waited 20-odd foreign consuls; native political leaders; sheiks in wimples; religious dignitaries from the country's many Moslem and Christian sects. They waited in vain for Admiral Pierre Victor Gabriel Gouton (acting for General Henri Fernand Dentz, Vichy's High Commissioner) to come out and say goodby.
Hands...
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