British troops; two of their number dead and two wounded, battled a large Arab band today in the Jenin area, raising the casualties among the terrorists to fifteen, including at least eleven dead.
Following an engagement near the village of Umm el Fahm, reinforcements surrounded the hills west of Jenin, where a strong band was fortified in caves. The British casualties were soldiers of the Ulster regiment.
Meanwhile, an Arab Ghaffir (auxiliary policeman) was killed by brigands near Jericho. Police dogs were brought to the spot to aid in a search for the murderers. Most telephone wires throughout the country were cut in the resumption of terrorist activity.
The Nablus police station was damaged when the second of two bombs thrown at the building exploded. Cafes and cinemas closed in panic as the culprits escaped to the hills. A Jewish bus carrying workers from the Kiriat Chaim settlement to Haifa was riddled by shots, but no casualties were reported.
Jerusalem police intensified their searches of pedestrians and motorists for weapons. They looked under the beards of orthodox Jews, and searched concert-goers attending a performance of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, at which High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope and other officials were present.
The Havas News Agency reported the authorities were working on a plan to close the Palestine-Syrian border by stretching high-tension barbed-wire along its entire length. The Transjordania frontier will also be strengthened by additions to the British police cordon which runs along it.
A shake-up in the Palestine police personnel, which is composed of British, Jewish and Arab elements, was proposed in the first report submitted to the authorities today by British experts studying the problem of repressing terrorism, according to Havas. It was signed by Sir David Petrie, formerly of the Indian service and now head of the Government’s Criminal Investigation Department. Sir Charles Tegart, special adviser to the Palestine police, was expected to present another report next week.
Davar, laborite Hebrew daily, reported that the Lebanese frontier guard had confiscated a large shipment of ammunition and machine guns, reportedly for a Palestine band, landed from a ship flying the flag of a Mediterranean power.
The Tel Aviv municipal council sent a memorandum to the Palestine Government demanding a jail be established in Tel Aviv for Jewish prisoners, hitherto confined in Jaffa with Arabs.
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