An attempt to give a reassuring picture of present conditions in Aden where serious anti-Jewish attacks occurred last May, and to justify the failure to pay compensation to the Jewish victims of the Arab attacks was made recently by Herbert Aubrey Metcalfe, a British official attached to the Political Department of the Indian Civil Service, speaking before the Indian Legislative Assembly at Delhi.
Mr. Metcalfe’s explanation of the riots, and the failure to punish the offenders and to pay compensation to the victims, which aroused wide protest, was offered in reply to a series of questions put by Jaya Prasad Singh.
Under the Bombay District Police Act the procedure in cases of damage caused by riot, Mr. Metcalfe explained, is to determine the local area whose inhabitants were responsible for the damage and to recover compensation from the residents of that area. In this case the majority of the offenders did not reside in Aden, but came from the interior and elsewhere. They possessed no property of value in Aden, and it was therefore impossible to recover any compensation from them.
The Government of India, he went on, accept no liability to pay compensation for losses occasioned by civil disturbances.
The root cause of the disturbance was the Balfour Declaration, one of the Deputies, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad, suggested.
I have no reason to think that there is any truth in that suggestion, Mr. Metcalfe replied.
No further trouble has occurred in Aden since the disturbances of last May and the feeling of racial antagonism aroused by these events has subsided, Mr. Metcalfe went on.
Arrest and punishment by imprisonment and deportation have produced a deterrent effect on the unruly element, while respectable Arabs have throughout deplored and discouraged anti-Jewish demonstrations.
At the request of the Jews, Mr. Metcalfe proceeded, additional police have been posted in the Jewish quarter on occasions of Jewish and Moslem Festivals in order to restore a sense of security, though the situation in fact no longer requires such special precautions.
Jews are now pursuing their business in a normal manner. Jewish schools, including girls’ schools which are in the main part of the town, are open and there is no reason for Jewish women to fear molestation.
Mr. Singh then drew attention to a report that had appeared in the “Bombay Chronicle” in November, about six months after the disturbances, stating that in Aden people were panic-stricken to such an extent that prominent people have since been taking extra precautions for their safety, and that it is impossible for anyone to walk alone along the paths.
He wanted to know whether any inquiry had been made into the cause of the disturbances and whether any official report had been issued.
He wanted to know further whether it was a fact that nine Jewish houses and 22 Jewish shops had been entered and looted by Arab hooligans and about 50 Jews injured, some very seriously.
He also wanted to know whether there was any truth in the allegations made by Joseph Y. Yaish in the Lon-
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.
