Two Deportees Wounded During Attempt to Break out of Cyprus Internment Camp

Two refugees were injured yesterday when they attempted to break out of the British internment camp at Famagusta, Cyprus, it was reported today. According to the reports, deportees from the Latrun, who were landed in Cyprus yesterday were involved in several “incidents.”

The first disturbance occurred at the pier at Nicosia where the refugees were disembarked from the Ocean Vigor and the Empire Heywood, to which they had been trans-shipped at Haifa, after being forcibly removed from the Latrun. Several resisted the guards and shouted anti-British slogans, while four women who were carrying a stretcher case down the gangplank refused to surrender their burden to soldiers.

The reports from Famagusta said that the visaless immigrants attempted to cut their way out of the Caraolos Camp as soon as they arrived there, but were stopped by troops who fired at them. An official announcement of the incident, however, did not mention that any shooting had occurred.

Many of the immigrants showed signs of having been subjected to large quantities of tear gas when they arrived at Nicosia and a number were still blinded and had to be led ashore, one report said. It quoted some of the refugees as declaring that an intercepting British destroyer deliberately rammed the Latrun and smashed a hole in her side. They said that a number of women who were in their bunks at the time of the ramming were thrown about and injured by flying fragments of the ship. Shortly after the ramming, a second destroyer came alongside and fired tear gas shells at the Jews, while a boarding party fought the passengers until they were subdued.

FOUR REFUGEES DIED EN ROUTE; MORE IMMIGRANTS LANDED IN LEBANON

Four refugees died from food poisoning while the Latrun was en route to Palestine, it was learned today. Meanwhile, reporters who were present on Friday when the deportees were taken off the vessel said soldiers guarding the pier shouted to their comrades who were dragging women up the gangplank: “That’s the way to do it, beat those bastards.” Nearly 20 of the refugees were beaten up.

An unconfirmed report reaching the Jewish Agency today said that the passengers from another immigrant ship had been landed in Lebanon when the vessel began to founder off the coast. The Lebanese authorities are understood to have asked the Palestine Government for instructions as to disposal of the immigrants. Two other ships are said to be somewhere on the Mediterranean en route to Palestine.