Biased Cross-examination at Palestine “arms Trial” Draws Protest from Defense

At today’s session of the “arms trial” the prosecutor, Major Baxter, cross-examined the Jewish defendant Leib Sirkin on the functions of the Histadruth, the Jewish sport organization Hapoel, the Brith Trumpeldor the Haganah, the Irgun Zvai Leumi and other Jewish organizations. He was especially interested in establishing whether the Histadruth supervises the activities of the Haganah.

The defendant replied that the Haganah was an organization formed to defend the Jewish settlements in time of riots and added that he did not know how much arms or how many members it has. He added that he had no idea as to whether the Haganah organization is supervised by the Histadruth. The defense protested seven times during the cross examination against the prosecutor dragging in the names of Jewish organizations which have nothing to do with the case and are not represented in court.

Sirkin denied any connection with Stoner and Harris, the two British soldier who have been convicted of smuggling arms into Palestine. He said that he was a graduate of the Law Faculty of the University of Kovno and had entered Palestine legally in 1936. Since then, he said, he has been secretary of the Hapoel sports organization, secretary of the Tel Aviv municipality’s workers mutual aid fund and since February has been secretary of the Jewish Seamen’s Union and Club at Haifa.