The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry resumed its session Monday morning after visiting areas attacked by the Arabs during the recent outbreak.
Following corrections and amendments to the stenographic records of previous sessions, witnesses were once more called to the stand.
The most important witness which the government has yet called was Captain Playfair, commander of the Royal Air Force at Amman. Testifying Monday Captain Playfair declared that H. C. Luke, Acting High Commissioner of Palestine, during the riots, informed him of the growing seriousness of the situation from August 18th on. The Transjordan defense force was ordered to stand by on August 23rd, he said, when he sent armored cars to Jerusalem, himself setting out for Jerusalem and arriving the afternoon the riots broke out. He said that he was in command of three sections and of the armored cars. One section guarded the Palestine Transjordan frontier, one remained at Amman, and the third was sent to Ramleh. In addition there were four armed tenders and eighteen planes. But all these were insufficient to cope with the grave situation. As a result, he and Mr. Luke decided to call for a battalion of infantry from Egypt.
On Saturday, Captain Playfair disclosed, the British police were concentrated in Jerusalem, the mobile units patrolled the outlying districts, while the aircraft acted as pickets for the Jewish colonies. Thirty men in two armored cars were sent to Tel Aviv where trouble was expected.
Continuing, Captain Playfair said that while these arrangements were being carried out disquieting reports were received from Amman, stating
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(Continued from Page 1) that the sheiks of Transjordania had decided to march on Palestine, being eventually restrained by Emir Abdullah, ruler of Transjordania.
Upon the heels of these disquieting reports, Playfair asserted, came the Arab attack upon the police of Nablus and the raiding of Talpioth. The news of the massacre at Hebron reached him an hour after its occurrence. Nevertheless an armed tender was immediately ordered to proceed to Hebron. Enroute it encountered armed bands heading for Jerusalem. As a result the tender did not arrive in Hebron until the afternoon of the massacre.
His main object, Playfair stated, was to prevent the incursion of Moslems from Transjordania, Egypt and Syria. Until the arrival of the British troops, the British strength in the country consisted of thirteen officers, one hundred and seventy-five men, three sections of armored cars.
Replying to a question by Drayton, Playfair said the object of the Arabs was to attack individual Jews and Jewish property, thus constituting a grave problem for the government. It was an attack on a minority by a very strong majority, the British officer stated. Interrupted by Stoker, Arab counsel, who asserted the characterization was too general, Captain Palyfair declared, “It was an attack of armed bands operating with forces of military significance against 135 Jewish agricultural settlements, with populations ranging from ten persons to six thousand, all widely dispersed.”
With the small force at his command, Captain Playfair asserted, he was obliged to prevent the over-running of the frontiers for which purpose the French in Syria have 28,000 troops.
The bombing of Arab invaders was discountenanced by him, but the planes were ordered to deal with looters, incendiaries and general concentrations of disorderly crowds, at the same time keeping the Transjordanian frontier closed.
A feature of the morning session was the evidence of the Jewish District Officer, Bineh, of Haifa, who was on duty in Jerusalem from August 13th to August 18th, in connection with the agitation around the Wailing Wall. The Commission was kept waiting while a British corporal brought a hat for the Jewish officer to wear while the oath was administered.
Bineh affirmed that the procession to the Wailing Wall on Tisha B’Ab, the 9th day of the month Ab, commemorating the destruction of the temple, was a customary rite and that the procession this year could not be considered an innovation and hence a cause for alleged provocation to the Arabs. Despite this testimony, the Bineh report was regarded as distinctly damaging to Jewish interests, R. Hopkin Morris, Liberal member of the Commission, remarking to Stoker, Arab counsel: Why do you wish to cross-examine the witness whose report is favorable to the Arab side?
Stoker again tried to introduce the controversial issue of whether the first person killed on Friday, August 23rd, was a Jew or an Arab, asking every witness whether he had seen or heard of the murder of certain Arabs. Major Monroe, head of a section of the British police, testified at Thursday’s session that the first Jew was killed at twelve thirty, Friday, August 23rd, outside of Barclay’s Bank, a telephone call from the Barclay Bank established.
Evidence somewhat damaging to the Jewish side was given by Police Inspector Burns who testified that he was called to quell a riot between Arabs and Jews in the Russian square. The police inspector failed to mention that the police shepherded the Jewish crowd into the Russian compound immediately following the killing and wounding of several Jews on the Jaffa Road.
A determined effort was made by the Moslem officer, Misbah Daudi, to prove that throughout the troubled period, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem encouraged the peacemakers.
Under cross-examination by Assistant Attorney General Drayton, associated with Mr. Preedy as counsel for the Palestine Administration, Binch revealed that he attended a Jewish meeting at which the Jewish demon-
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(Continued from Page 3) stration at the Wailing Wall was discussed. The Jews, he said, at the meeting considered the new door to the Wailing Wall built by the Arabs and the pavement around the Wall becoming a public passage contrary to the status quo. He stated that he heard rumors to the effect that 500 Jews from Tel Aviv, under the auspices of a Wailing Wall Committee, were coming to Jerusalem to take part in the demonstration.
Mr. Silley, Assistant to Stoker, Arab counsel, vainly attempted to get Bineh to admit that the aim of the Jews, in forming the Wailing Wall Committee, was to secure possession of the Wailing Wall. Bineh insisted that the sole purpose of the Wailing Wall committee was to prevent infringement of the status quo.
Bineh declared that despite the fact that 2,000 persons attended the meeting in the Jerusalem synagogue before the demonstration occurred, the meeting was peaceful although feelings ran high as a result of the rumor that Jews would not be permitted to visit the Wailing Wall in groups.
Visitors to the Wailing Wall fall into two categories, Bineh testified-worshippers and visitors who come to pay their respects, including Chaluzim, some of whom are religious. He stated that the religious worshippers are the older type, declaring that this type had fewer representatives at the Wall this Tisha B’Ab, while the usual number of visitors was undiminished.
Mr. Silley attempted to extract damaging statements from Bineh about the effect of waving of the Zionist flag and the resolutions passed by the Zionist Congress and Jewish Agency meeting at Zurich. Bineh declined to enter into a political discussion as to the effects of the Zurich resolutions on the Palestine Jews, declaring that they could not have been a cause for excitement. Sir Boyd Merriman offered to produce the resolutions adopted by the Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency conference. Merriman went on record on the basis of the evidence supplied by Bineh that Arabs with no business there passed up and down the pavement before the Wailing Wall, more than a dozen times. Despite this provocation, he said, the Jeshurun procession was peaceful and reverent, thus depriving the Arabs of a strong weapon.
L. Harrington, member of the British police force was recalled to the witness stand. Harrington introduced a report by a Junior Arab officer describing the Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall. The officer stated that a great many rabbis and old women were at the Wailing Wall. Nothing untoward happened until the afternoon, when the Jewish youth procession arrived. In the speeches that were made, the Arab officer’s report alleges, shouts were heard of “Shame on the Government. Long live the Jewish nation. Long live the British nation. We will not allow dishonoring of the Wailing Wall.”
Police Inspector Burns testified that three hundred Jews and two hundred and fifty Arabs filled the Russian compound at one-thirty Friday afternoon. He declared that he dispersed the Jewish crowd and escorted the Arabs, two Arabs being found wounded, Later the Police Inspector recalled that an encounter had occurred on Jaffa Road previously during which several Jews had been killed.
In his testimony Burns declared that he did not know who was responsible for the encounter, whether the Jews or the Arabs began the attack. He declared he saw several large vehicles filled with Arabs enroute to Jaffa. To his query as to their destination, he received an evasive reply. Asked by Stoker to give a description of what happened on Friday, Burns replied: “There was a general disturbance.”
A Moslem police officer, named Misbah Daudi, was cross-examined by Stoker. On the stand, Daudi declared that the Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall interrupted the muezzin calling the Arabs to prayer and annoyed the Arabs passing the pavement. Enthusiastic addresses were delivered, he said but no incidents occurred thanks to the efforts of the sheiks who cautioned the Moslems to be quiet: “The Government will protect us.”
On the day after the Jewish demonstration the Moslems held a demonstration where the same thing occurred. Daudi declared. The Moslems again overran the pavement outside the Wall, but obeyed the police and the Mufti who sent messengers to tell the Arabs to keep order, that the government would safeguard their rights. Daudi declared that he saw no breaking of furniture or tearing of prayer books. On the other hand, he expressed himself as positive that Sheik Hassan, whom the British police officer, Harrington, described as a danzerous fanatic, attempted to pacify the crowd, although the crowd shouted him down and condemned him and other leaders as traitors.
Sir Walter Shaw, head of the Inquiry Commission, reminded the witness that Harrigton testified he had ordered the police to charge the mob, which was waving daggers.
Under cross-examination by Sir Boyd Merriman, many discrepancies were revealed in Daudi’s testimony. It was shown that there were two distinct English versions of Daudi’s report, one of which included the name of the sheik supposed to have been the pacifier of the crowd, who was absent from Jerusalem on the day of the Arab demonstration.
Merriman disclosed that the muezzin, whose calling to prayer was allegedly interrupted by the Jews, was mounted on a building near the Wall, a point never before used for such a purpose.
No progress has been made in the investigation into the proposed trip to Syria of the Grand Mufti. Preedy. Government counsel, stated that the French Government will permit the French consul to testify whether the Grand Mufti applied for a visa if the High Commissioner of Palestine will request it. Sir Walter Shaw intimated that Chancellor must be asked to make such request.
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