Arab Legion Responsible for Latrun Blast, U.N. Official Indicates; Retaliation Wanted

A U.N. spokesman indicated here today that the demolition yesterday of the Latrun water pumping station–which controls the water main from the coastal plain to Jerusalem–was probably the work of the Arab Legion.

Addressing a press conference, the U.E. truce official reported that an initial investigation of the blast showed that the truck in which the dynamiters were said to have made off after setting the explosives was driven by a member of the Arab Legion. U.N. authorities who arrived at the scene of the explosion several minutes after it occurred said they found three Arab civilians in the vehicle who admitted that they helped unload heavy equipment near the pumping station.

(At Lake Success, Israeli representative Aubrey S. Eban requested of the U.N. Security Council to authorize Israel to assume control of the demolished Latrun water pumping station for repair purposes. Eban said that unless Israel were authorized to take over the pimping station, the Israeli Government would feel free to take any action it deemed necessary to restore Jerusalem’s water.)

Israeli Army leaders were reported today to be urgings direct military action in retaliation for the wrecking of the pumping station. These leaders feel that the sabotage demonstrates that the Palestine mediator is powerless and, subsequently, the present truce is senseless, provoking a state of semi-war which will never lead to a permanent peace.

In a message to Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok in which he expressed his “profound shock” at the blowing up of the Latrun station, J.N. mediator Count Folke Bernadotte said he had ordered repair work on the installations to begin at once. He also said “in view of what has happened,” he could not “blame the Israeli Government” for deciding to revoke its earlier order to evacuate two Arab villages overlooking the Latrun-Ramallah road.

U.N. officials who returned today from the Latrun area reported that all three pumps in the station have been completely destroyed and “are beyond repair.”