Ben Gurion Says Jewish Agency May Publish “black Book” of British Crimes in Palestine

The Jewish Agency may soon publish a “Black Book” listing crimes of murder and terror committed by the Palestine administration against the Jews of Palestine, David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Agency executive, told newsmen yesterday at a press conference here.

The Agency has not published such a listing earlier because it did not wish to further embitter relations between the Jews and the British Government, he said, adding that “ultimate responsibility for sabotage, murder and lawlessness in Palestine will rest on the British Government,” which during the past seven years “set an example of lawlessness and breach of faith in Palestine.”

In the first public statement by an individual member of the Agency executive, Ben Gurion, second ranking member of the Agency, denied the charges in the White Paper. British Middle East circles, hating and fearing the existence of the progressive Palestine Jewish community in the Middle East, are attempting to destroy it, he charged.

Referring to the telegrams quoted in the White Paper, he declared, “I do not say that all these documents are forged, but such cases are known in history,” and recalled that the British Government has upon occasion used false documents to compromise political opponents. He cited a document used during the conflict with Ireland and the famous Zinoviev letters which purported to instruct British Communists to create trouble in England and which were later proved to be false.

He told of two meetings with Colonial Secretary George Hall which had occurred less than two weeks before the raids upon the Jewish community of Palestine and the mass arrests of Jews there. He asserted that at one meeting, attended by a non-Jewish Laborite Member of Parliament, the atmosphere was one of extreme cordiality and friendliness, giving no hint whatsoever of the coming raids or the publication of the White Paper.

At the other meeting, he said, he, Hall, and several other British colonial officials had discussed the kidnapping of six British officers by the Irgun Zvai Leumi, and he had given them a message to send through official British channels asking the Agency to call on the Palestine Jewish community to help return the abducted men.

WARNS IF RESISTANCE LIQUIDATED, MUFTI WILL BE FREE TO MASSAGE JEWS

Ben Gurion emphasized that he did not suspect High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham, whom he termed an “honest man and a correct soldier,” of complicity in the possible forging of incriminating documents, but said that he would not put it above the Criminal Investigation Department in Palestine or British secret intelligence personnel. He warned that if hostile circles within the British colonial administration succeeded in destroying the Jewish self-defense movement in Palestine, gas chambers might not result, but the ex-Mufti and his forces would be let loose to massacre the Jews.

Specifically discussing the evidence marshalled in the White Paper, he asked why had the British had failed to publish this material earlier, particularly in the light of their own admission that they had been aware of it for some time. He also asked for an explanation of the fact that only one of the eight telegrams cited listed both a sender and an addressee. Denying categorically that he had received telegrams number eight, which mentions that he is to approve the resumption of broadcasts by the Jewish Resistance Movement’s radio, “Voice of Israel,” he declared that he would let the other alleged recipients and senders of the telegrams explain them for themselves whenever they are freed from detonation.