42 Nablus Arabs have already been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from three to twelve months, for participating in the riots which took place there on Saturday and Sunday.
Connections between the Palestine Arab Executive and the Communists are said to have been revealed through the arrest of three Arab agitators implicated in the riots which took place at Nablus during the week-end. Records and correspondence have been seized in the Young Men’s Moslem Association in Nablus, which, it is state, will supply proof on this point.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS MANDATES COMMISSION DISCUSSES COMMUNISM IN PALESTINE
Communism in Palestine was one of the questions discussed at the last session of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations held in June. It was brought up by the Chairman of the Commission, the Marquis Thedoli, who drew attention to an article which had appeared in the French press to the effect that a Communist Congress composed of Arabs and Jews had met at Jerusalem in December 1930, and that an organisation had been formed in which the Arab element was predominant. The Arabs, he pursued, said that the Communists were mostly found among the Jews, while the Jews stated that most of the Communists in Palestine were Arabs.
Mr. Young, the Chief Secretary to the Palestine Government, replied that he had not heard of any statement on the part of Jews that the Communists were mostly Arabs. On the contrary, he thought it was admitted that they were mostly Jews. He could give no information, he added, regarding the alleged Congress in December 1930. He knew there were Communists in Palestine and that they held meetings, but he was not aware of any meeting which could be dignified with the name of a Congress.
Dr. Drummond Shiels added that the authorities in London had no knowledge of this Congress and it appeared to be merely a newspaper report. In reply to a question by the Chairman, whether the Palestine Intelligence Service had been reorganised, Mr. Young replied in the affirmative, and said that it was now on a much more satisfactory footing.
The Chairman thereupon remarked that as the service was now better organised it would be inexplicable if the French press were better informed than the Palestine Administration. It was evident, he added, that some circles were alive to the danger of Communist activity in Palestine, and he therefore hoped that the Palestine Government would keep this danger in view.
Dr. Drummond Shiels said that where as he supposed that the Communists in all countries were connected with Moscow, he had no reason to believe that the relations were such as not to be fully in the knowledge of and appreciated by the Palestine Administration. It was difficult to prevent people of extreme political views from entering the country, he concluded, but the Administration would keep in view the seriousness of this question.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
