Exploding of a bomb in a railway train near Tel Aviv injuring fourteen persons, the wounding of a high police official in Jerusalem and scattered incidents of guerilla warfare throughout the country today marked the eighth Moslem Sabbath since recent disorders against the Government and the Jews broke out.
The bomb — a crudely made affair consisting of a can loaded with dynamite — went off as the train pulled into Kalkillia station. British soldiers on duty at the depot opened fire on a group of Arabs who had jumped the train just before the explosion. They had been passengers in the car wrecked by the detonation.
While the undamaged section of the train proceeded on its way carrying with it an unascertained number of slightly injured passengers, Jewish Red Cross ambulances sped to the scene from Tel Aviv, giving emergency treatment to the more seriously wounded before removing them to Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv.
Seven of the fourteen injured are women. Four of the five in serious condition are women, including Miriam Feirstein, 32, who was in a critical state. The other injured are the six-year-old child of Mrs. Feirstein, Abraham Sobel, 28; Chava Mandelbaum, 35; Lydia Tishler, 22; Rachel Braver, 60; Salamon Schwartz, 21; Judith Levin, 23; Chava Rechtshafer, 57; Shimshon Dweidler, 52; Abraham Mizrachi, 25; Bertha Klein, 52; Jacob Klein, 55, and David Ben Rachel, 52.
POLICE OFFICIAL SHOT BY ARABS
Alan Sigrist, assistant police superintendent, was in the hospital in grave condition as a result of chest and shoulder wounds suffered when two Arabs opened fire on him near the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. An official communique said an Arab teacher, Ibrahim Ansari, was arrested as one of the assailants. The other escaped. Ansari was gravely wounded by a constable accompanying Sigrist.
Airplanes this afternoon flew low over the hills in the Nablus region, searching for Arab bands that continued to wage disastrous guerilla warfare against Government forces and the Jews.
A water-pumping station was burned down today at Petach Tikvah. Haaretz, Hebrew daily, said 500 dunams of crops were destroyed by fire at Sajera. Fifty dunams of trees were burned in the Government forest preserve on Mount Carmel near Haifa.
Palestinian newspapers reported that the authorities were considering application of newly-promulgated regulations permitting district commissioners to order the reopening of striking Arab stores. Stationing of military patrols on Central Street, Jerusalem, where many Arab stores are located was taken as indication the authorities would protect Arab shops that reopened.
Jerusalem Jews faced a meatless Sabbath tomorrow as a result of refusal of inhabitants of the Mea Shearim quarter to permit construction of a temporary abattoir authorized by the Government after sniping at the Municipal Abattoir had rendered it unsafe. Jews have gone for four days without meat slaughtered under sanitary conditions.
Arabs of the Catholic faith today asked their Patriarch to appeal to Pope Pius in Rome to intervene in behalf of the Palestine Arabs in their struggle with the Government to halt Jewish immigration.
4 WOUNDED IN BATTLES
Three Jews and one Arab were wounded yesterday when Arabs attacked soldiers at one place and Jewish workers at another, according to an official communique.
After Arabs had stoned a Jewish bus at Pazur and seriously injured one Jew, a battle broke out between Jewish and Arab workers of the Nesher factory. Two Jews and an Arab were injured.
The Arab clash with the military occurred on the Nablus-Tulkarem road. No casualties were reported.
A Jewish-owned bus was bombed between Jaffa and Jerusalem, injuring a Jewish woman slightly. Crops were burned at Sejera. Three Jewish huts were burned down near Ramleh.
Arabs are believed to have suffered several casualties last night when soldiers beat off a band attacking a caravan of Jewish buses after a five-hour engagement near Nur el Shem.
The buses, owned by the Egged Co. were proceeding to Tel Aviv from Haifa under military convoy when they found the road barricaded near Nur el Shem. Arab snipers opened fire from the hills and the convoy replied with a barrage from a Lewis gun.
At the risk of his life, the Jewish bus-driver, Franz Pollak, ran under fire to Nur el Shem and brought military reinforcements, which drove off the attackers. The number of Arab casualties could not be established.
BRITISH SOLDIERS URGED TO MUTINY
Leaflets addressed to British soldiers and signed, "Your Arab friend," were distributed in Jerusalem last night, urging the troops to halt their fight against the Arabs.
"Why get killed in a war which is not good for England or for the British Empire?" the leaflets said. "You are endangering your life just for the Jews."
The Hebrew daily, Davar, reports that only 38 parties, including consulates, are permitted to make calls on international trunk telephone lines, which are now under control of army engineers.
Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, British High Commissioner, inspected military forces at Haifa after returning from a visit to Jewish settlements in the Jezreel Valley.
Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti, cabled an appeal to the Moslems in India, urging them to rush financial assistance to the Palestine Arabs.
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