The manager of the Palestine Potash Company’s plant, S. Swerdloff, was arrested today as the center of activities of British troops hunting for five kidnapped officers shifted from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to the Dead Sea area.
Swerdloff was detained after police discovered a cache of arms within the company’s 25-square mile concession area. Fifteen of the more than 1,000 Jews and Arabs employed at the plant were also arrested following an identity check of all workers by 300 policemen. Troops with fixed bayonets surrounded the concession while the searches were going on.
Moshe Kaminer, director of the company, told correspondents who accompanied the several thousand raiders that while on the whole the police and soldiers behaved correctly, several had broken doors and windows and entered workers’ homes from which valuables and money were taken.
The Irgun Zvai Leumi was charged today with having planned to kidnap Lieut. Gen. Sir Evelyn Barker, British commander in Palestine, in a statement issued by military headquarters. The Irgun is believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of five other officers, for whom searches are still going on.
MONAHEM BEGIN, ALLEGED COMMANDER OF IRGUN, SOUGHT IN TEL AVIV
The military and police net which enveloped Tel Aviv for two days has been withdrawn, but small flying squads of police are still scouring the city for Menahem Begin, alleged commander of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, whose hideout is believed to be some where in Tel Aviv.
One of the two British officers detained for the killing of Abraham Rosenberg in Tel Aviv Wednesday night has been placed under formal arrest, it was announced tonight.
A military court today sentenced Zvi Fixler, a member of the Jewish resistance movement to concurrent terms of 12 years imprisonment for blowing up a bridge near Nathanya on April 12, two years for illegal possession of a revolver and five years for possession of a bomb.
It was reported from Beirut today that the Lebanese Home Minister, Saeb Bey Salaam, had announced that some Jewish "terrorists" had infiltrated into Lebanon. He said that measures have been taken to apprehend them.
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.
