Italy Arrests All Jewish Men in Tripoli As Allied Forces Advance into Libya

With the Axis armies routed and fleeing across the sands of western Egypt in a desperate attempt to escape annihilation by the Allied forces, the Rome Radio today announced that “as a matter of precaution” all Jewish men in Tripoli, between 17 and 42 years of age, are being hurried from the Libyan city to a concentration camp in the desert.

In making this announcement, the Rome radio charged the approximately 15,000 Jews of Tripoli with “pro-British sentiments.” Jewish women and children in Tripoli will be placed under a special curfew beginning today, prohibiting them to leave their homes between six o’clock in the evening and dawn.

The Rome announcement is taken here to indicate that military authorities in Italy are afraid that the British armed forces in Egypt will continue their victorious offensive far into Libya. An Italian broadcast in Arabic today continued to warn the Arabs that they will be “enslaved by the British and the Jews” if they do not come to the aid of the Axis at the present “crucial” moment.

BRITISH MILITARY AUTHORITIES PRAISE JEWISH PARTICIPATION IN DESERT BATTLE

The British military authorities in Egypt today praised a Jewish technical military unit which is reported to have done “prompt and excellent work” in the forward fighting zone. The unit consists of experienced Jewish telephone and telegraph linesmen from Palestine attached to the Royal Signal Corps.

In emphasizing the good work of the Jewish unit, the British military authorities stated that “the Jewish officers and men have carried out exemplarily a most difficult task.”

The Axis radio stations today repeatedly broadcast in Arabic a “manifesto” from the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem urging the “Arab and Islamic peoples to heroically resist the Allied nations.” In his call, the ex-Mufti, who is now working as an Axis agent, says that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill have approved the Zionist demand for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Repeating his old line of propaganda that there is a “Jewish danger for Arab countries and for the holy places of Islam,” the ex-Mufti emphasized in his “manifesto” that “every Arab must contribute to the strengthening of the solidarity between the Arab people and the Axis powers.” He pointed to the fact that the Jews are now celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which, he said, was “England’s betrayal of the Arab cause.”

The Vichy radio in a broadcast in Arabic addressed to Arab-speaking peoples last night admitted that the “British are winning in Egypt.” The Berlin radio in a broadcast tried to convince the Arabs that the retreat of the Axis armies on the Egyptian front is “a mere military maneuver.”