Exact data on the number of Palestine Jewish soldiers lost in the battles of Greece and Crete was for the first time given today in the House of Commons by Capt. David Margesson, British Secretary of War.
Capt. Margesson disclosed that 1,023 Palestine Jewish volunteers are now considered as lost in the British campaign in Greece and Crete. Of them 440 are known to have fallen into the hands of the Nazis as war prisoners, while 583 remain unaccounted for. They were all in the Pioneer Labor Units, some of which were armed. All were commanded by British officers who, Capt. Margesson said, remained with their troops. A total of 421 Arabs serving in the same units also missing.
The War Secretary’s statement came in reply to repeated questions in Commons by Col. Josiah Wedgwood concerning the fate of Palestine soldiers in the Greek campaign. Wedgwood had asked whether the troops were armed and commended by British officers. “I strongly deprecate Mr. Wedgwood’s suggestion in this and other recent questions that the conduct of British officers in this war has been in any way inconsistent with the traditions of the British army,” Margesson stated in Commons today.
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