Dressed in mourning, Prime-Minister Churchill today told a silent House of Commons of the assassination of Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East, who died last night as a result of wounds inflicted by two gunmen, outside of his home in Cairo.
Although General Sir Bernard C. T. Paget, the British Commander in Chief in the Middle East, said last night in Cairo that the two assassins were Jews, Prime Minister Churchill told Commons today that “we have as yet received no official information which fixes the authorship of the crime or gives us a clue to its motive.”
Churchill emphasized that the Jews in Palestine “had rarely lost a better or more well-informed friend.” He added that Lord Moyne, who was at one time Colonial Minister, had devoted himself this year to a solution of the Zionist problem. Very searching inquiries would be made into the assassination, he declared.
The entire press in London gives lengthy reports of the assassination. The Daily Express says that the British Colonial Office discussed today the possibility of a link between the terroristic activities in Palestine and the assassination of Lord Moyne. The Daily Mail, stating that the British diplomat was killed by “Jewish terrorists,” demands that the assassins receive just punishment and that a full inquiry be instituted into the motives of the murder. “Any festering sore of unrest must ruthlessly be exposed and duly dealt with,” the paper writes.
The British Ambassador in Cairo was ordered by the Foreign Office to submit a detailed report on the assassination. The Egyptian Government was, at the same time, requested to institute a formal inquiry.
ASSAILANTS REFUSE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS; ARE NOT EGYPTIAN CITIZENS
The two assailants, who are not Egyptian citizens, refused to answer any questions put to them by British and Egyptian officials. They were mobbed by enraged crowds at the place of the assassination and nearly lynched. One of them was wounded by a Egyptian policeman.
The theory that the assassins may be Nazi agents was advanced here by Lord Strabolgi, labor member of Parliament and president of the newly formed League to Promote Dominion Status for a Jewish Palestine. “It is probable to my mind that Lord Moyne was murdered by Nazi agents,” he said, “But if it transpires that this assassination is the work of Jews, then this murder is an amazing development and it shows that there is some very deep-seated trouble which must be probed and investigated.”
Lord Moyne died in a British military hospital in Cairo several hours after the two youths shot him in the neck, chest and abdomen as he stepped into his automobile in front of his home. His chauffeur was killed instantly. The assassins attempted to escape on bicycles. An Egyptian policeman tried to halt them and they opened fire on him. He returned the fire with a pistol, wounding one of the pair, a blond youth.
STATE FUNDERAL PLANNED FOR LORD MOYNE; WAS “FATHER” OF NEW PARTITION PLAN
King Farouk of Egypt visited the hospital before Lord Moyne died. It is expected that a state funeral will be arranged for the British statesman, who was 64 years old.
Lord Moyne is said to have been the “father” of a new partition plan for Palestine under which a part of the country was to be proclaimed as a Jewish State. This was also indicated today by Prime Minister Churchill when he told the House of Commons that Lord Moyne devoted himself “this year” to a solution of the Zionist problem.
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.
