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British Policeman, 3 Arabs Killed As Revolt Spreads

May 29, 1936
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Four more deaths, one of them of a British policeman and three of Arabs, were recorded today as widespread Arab rebellion continued unchecked, bringing the toll of fatalities since April 19 to fifty-four.

As troops continued to pour into the Holy Land from Egypt, the following incidents occurred:

Arabs ambushed and shot dead a British constable, Robert Bird, in the Old City of Jerusalem–the first Briton to be killed in the Holy City–while he was returning from duty.

One Arab was shot dead and another seriously wounded when British policemen fired on an Arab mob of several hundred which was attacking four Jewish-owned lorries on route from the Jaffa harbor to Tel Aviv with merchandise. Traffic between the two cities was suspended.

Two Arabs were killed and seven wounded, one of them seriously, when Arab rebels attacked British military detachments in several parts of the country.

An Arab policeman was wounded and his rifle stolen in the Old City.

Arabs attacked railway lines at Khanyunis but were compelled to retreat when British troops opened fire. Arabs fired on police stations at Nazareth and Jaffa, but no casualties were reported.

Seventeen bombs were thrown in Jaffa during the night and morning, making a total of seventy in this city in the past six weeks.

Despite Arab attempts to bomb and mine railways reinforcements arrived here today by rail and airplane from Egypt.

TRAINS FROM EGYPT HEAVILY GUARDED

All trains from Egypt were arriving with armored car and war tank convoys. Obstructions placed by Arabs at Gaza on the Palestine-Egyptian railway were removed.

A dynamite mine designed to destroy a train was discovered in time on the Gaza-Lydda stretch of the railroad.

A train was bombed near Migdal. Military engineers removed explosives that were discovered buried at various points on the Nablus road to trap military convoys. Other roads were also discovered to have been mined.

British policemen were reported replacing striking Arab policemen in the vicinity of Jewish colonies. Arab policemen last night proclaimed a strike at Tulkarem in protest against what was described officially as the accidental killing by a Briton of an Arab constable at Kakun. Jaffa Arab policemen today decided to send a memorandum to the authorities before acting on a strike proposal.

FORESTS SET ON FIRE AT AFULEH

Forest fires were set near the Afuleh groves and at Yakhin near Tulkarem.

Arab newspapers, before suspending for three days as an anti-Government protest, reported the Government intended to publish an Arabic daily. They announced that they would not publish Government communiques when they resumed publication on Monday.

Hebrew University students today asked High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope to mobilize them to help British military forces, suggesting that he restore the Jewish Legion–the regiments of Jews that served under the late Marshal Allenby in the World War campaign in the Holy Land.

In a memorandum to the High Commissioner the students emphasized that when Jewish life and property were not safe, Jewish youth did not wish to stand aside while British soldiers were endangering their own lives for the security of Jews.

Casualty totals as cabled to the Colonial Office in London were reported yesterday as: twenty-six Jews killed, twenty-two Moslems, one Arab Christian and one European Christian. The Arab deaths include two constables.

The injured are 175 Moslems, 110 Jews and forty Christians. The Christians include twenty-three British policemen, two soldiers and eight European Christians.

Arabs numbering 950 have been arrested, of whom 409 have been convicted. Also 250 Jews have been arrested, of whom 204 were convicted, most of them for breaking curfew regulations.

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