PALESTINE AWAITED TODAY A DECLARATION OF SOME FORM OF MARTIAL LAW AS THE MURDER OF TWO BRITISH CONSTABLES RAISED TO NINE THE REPORTED DEATH TOLL IN TWO DAYS OF THE MOST SERIOUS DISORDERS SINCE THE 1936 ARAB REVOLT.
THE CONSTABLES, AUSTIN MALIA AND NORMAN HARRISON, WERE KILLED IN A SHARP ENGAGEMENT WITH ARABS WHO AMBUSHED A PATROL ON THE HEBRON ROAD NEAR THE HISTORIC SOLOMON’S POOLS.
YOUNG JEWISH SPECIAL POLICE WERE MOBILIZED FROM HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS AS THE BRITISH AUTHORITIES PREPARED TO TAKE STRINGENT ACTION TO STAMP OUT THE NEW WAVE OF TERRORISM WHICH, REPORTS INDICATED, WAS BEING CONDUCTED BY ORGANIZED ARAB BANDS OPERATING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
PLACARDS WERE POSTED ALL OVER JERUSALEM TO INFORM THE INHABITANTS THAT THE CITY WAS UNDER CURFEW FROM SEVEN P.M. UNTIL FIVE A.M. AND RESIDENTS WERE TO REMAIN IN THEIR HOMES DURING THESE HOURS. LARGE DETAILS OF POLICE PATROLLED THE OLD CITY QUARTER’S TORTUOUS ALLEYS, AND STOPPED AND SEARCHED ALL PERSONS PASSING THROUGH THE OLD CITY GATES.
GREAT TENSION PREVAILED IN JAFFA, STARTING POINT OF THE 1936 DISORDERS, AND HEAVILY-REINFORCED POLICE WERE PATROLLING THE PREDOMINANTLY-ARAB PORT CITY. THE PRESIDENT OF THE ARAB CHAMBER OF COMMERCE THERE, THE HEAD OF THE STEVEDORES’ UNION AND THREE ARAB NOTABLES WERE ARRESTED AND REMOVED TO ACRE PRISON FOR THREE-MONTH TERMS.
POLICE WERE ORDERED TO STAND BY IN HAIFA AS TENSION GREW IN THE CITY. SEARCHES IN NABLUS, HOTBED OF ARAB UNREST, BROUGHT THREE ARRESTS, AND A 24-HOUR-CURFEW IN THE SAFED AREA WAS LIFTED AFTER 26 ARAB AGITATORS HAD BEEN ARRESTED AND REMOVED TO ACRE PRISON.
RAILWAY TRAFFIC SUSPENDED AFTER WRECK
AFTERNOON AND NIGHT RAILWAY TRAFFIC WAS SUSPENDED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AFTER A TRAIN CARRYING TROOPS OF THE ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT TO EGYPT HAD BEEN FIRED UPON, AND YESTERDAY’S TRAIN WRECK AT RAS-EL-EIN NEAR KALKILLIA, IN WHICH THREE PERSONS WERE REPORTED KILLED. (AN OFFICIAL SUMMARY OF THE OUTBREAKS, ISSUED BY THE COLONIAL OFFICE IN LONDON, STATED NONE WAS KILLED IN THE WRECK.)
AN INQUIRY TODAY REVEALED THE WRECK CAUSED $15,000 DAMAGE AND WAS CARRIED OUT BY A BAND OF THIRTY ARABS WHO MINED THE ROADBED WITH DYNAMITE, AND AFTER THE EXPLOSION FIRED ON THE TRAIN. AFTER FOUR CARS CRASHED, THREE ARMED ARABS ENTERED AN UNDAMAGED CAR, APPARENTLY BENT ON ROBBERY, AND WERE CONFRONTED BY A BRITISH CONSTABLE WHO KILLED TWO AND CAPTURED THE THIRD. WITH SEARCHES FOR VICTIMS STILL IN PROGRESS, IT WAS ESTABLISHED NONE OF THE THIRTY JEWISH PASSENGERS WAS INJURED.
AN ARMED BAND THIS MORNING BARRICADED THE JERUSALEM-BETHLEHEM ROAD AND FIRED FROM AMBUSH ON DRIVERS WHO HALTED THEIR CARS TO CLEAR THE WAY. NO CASUALTIES WERE REPORTED.
THREE TIME BOMBS WERE FOUND BEFORE THEY HAD EXPLODED AT THE SPOT NEAR THE POLICE STATION IN JERUSALEM WHERE AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE RECENTLY ON THE LIFE OF ROY G.B. SPICER, INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE AND PRISONS. AN ARMED ARAB, FOUND DEAD NEAR A JERUSALEM HOME FOR THE AGED, WAS BELIEVED TO BE THE ONE WHO BOMBED A BUS THERE YESTERDAY, INJURING THREE JEWS.
A JEWISH WATCHMAN, ISAAC WISHNEVSKY, AND TWO JEWISH SPECIAL POLICEMEN WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED IN ARAB ATTACKS. SEJERA, RAMAT HAKOVESH, ROSH PINA, GENIGAR IN THE JEZREEL VALLEY, NEVE JACOB NEAR JERUSALEM AND MIGDAL ZEDEK WERE HEAVILY FIRED UPON, BUT NO CASUALTIES WERE REPORTED.
A TELEPHONE CHECK-UP MADE BY THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY THIS AFTERNOON WITH OUTLYING POINTS REVEALED THAT SEVERAL JEWISH COLONIES IN THE GALILEE HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO SHOOTING, THE TEL AVIV AREA WAS QUIET EXCEPT THAT BEN SHEMEN HAD BEEN FIRED ON FOR AN HOUR, AND THE JEZREEL VALLEY WAS GENERALLY QUIET.
A STRONG POLICE CORDON WAS THROWN AROUND THE MOSQUE OF OMAR, WHERE THE DEPOSED GRAND MUFTI, HAJ AMIN EL HUSSEINI, HAS FLED TO ESCAPE ARREST. HIS NEPHEW, JAMAL EL HUSSEINI, PREVIOUSLY REPORTED TO HAVE FLED THE COUNTRY, AND BARRED FROM RETURNING UNDER AN ACT EMPOWERING THE HIGH COMMISSIONER TO PROHIBIT ANYONE FROM RETURNING TO PALESTINE, MAY STILL BE IN THE COUNTRY, NEWSPAPERS SAID TODAY.
STRONG MEASURES PLANNED IF DISORDERS SPREAD
THE ARAB NEWS AGENCY, SUMMING UP THE SITUATION, DECLARED THAT “NO GOVERNMENT CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING BY A PURELY NEGATIVE POLICY.”
THE ARAB DAILY, AL JAMIA EL ISLAMIA, REPORTED THAT POLICE WERE CLOSELY WATCHING THE ITALIAN STEAMSHIP MARCO POLO, WHICH ANCHORED YESTERDAY OFF JAFFA. THE PAPER ASSERTED THE GOVERNMENT HAD CANCELLED PERMITS FOR THE ITALIAN CONSULS IN JERUSALEM, JAFFA AND HAIFA TO BOARD THE SHIP.
THE GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE THE STRONGEST MEASURES IN THE EVENT THAT THE OUTBREAK SPREADS, IT WAS LEARNED TONIGHT, AND ALSO PLANS A STRICT CENSORSHIP WHICH WOULD RESTRICT CORRESPONDENTS TO TRANSMITTING OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUES. THE SYRIAN FRONTIER WAS CLOSED.
THE NEW VIOLENCE WAS NOT A SURPRISE, THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY LEARNED FROM INFORMED SOURCES. IT HAD BEEN EXPECTED TO ERUPT WEDNESDAY. JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS HAD INFORMED THE GOVERNMENT OF WIDE PREPARATIONS BY ARAB TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, WHICH WERE MOBILIZING ARAB YOUTHS IN THE HILLS.
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.
