An investigation into a newspaper report that the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem had left France for Syria on a U.S. Air Transport Command plane was launched here today, it was revealed by a spokesman of the State Department.
(A cable from the Jerusalem correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last night stated that the ex-Mufti arrived in Damascus yesterday morning on a French plane and that he left immediately for Bludan, Syria, to attend the Arab League conference there. The cable said that the ex-Mufti’s plane stopped earlier in the morning at Cairo, where he was given a warm welcome.)
The British Embassy here today ridiculed reports that the ex-Mufti left France in a British plane. An embassy spokesman suggested that it would have been in character for the ex-Mufti to have adopted a disguise and passed himself off as an official of another country.
The Government of the United States was urged today to make, together with the British Government, diplomatic representations to all countries of the Arab League demanding the return of the ex-Mufti for trial as a war criminal. The suggestion was made in a telegram sent to President Truman by the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League.
The Hebrew Committee of National Liberation today made public the text of a message sent to the British Government demanding that it charge the ex-Mufti with his crimes, secure his extradition and imprison him “pending trial in Palestine.”
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.
