[1] Soon thereafter the French mandate authorities closed the office of the National Bloc in Damascus, and arrested two prominent nationalist leaders from the party, Fakhri al-Baroudi and Sayf al-Din al-Ma'mun.

The strike, which started on 20 January with work stoppages and student protests in Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, soon spread to all major towns.

[2] Leaders from the National Bloc, including Nasib al-Bakri, Jamil Mardam Bey, Lutfi al-Haffar and Faris al-Khoury actively participated and organized demonstrations against the French occupation and the French-appointed president, Taj al-Din al-Hasani,[3] and demanded the reinstatement of the 1930 constitution that was suspended in 1933.

"[2] The French High Commissioner, Damien de Martel, was urgently recalled from Beirut to Damascus to handle the situation,[2] and General Charles Huntziger, commander of the Army of the Levant was tasked with restoring calm.

The French government also came under severe pressure inside France from the leftist media and the emerging Popular Front which called for a complete re-haul of its policy in Syria and Lebanon.