“The road toward a Jewish state is still strewn with mines,” David Ben Gurion today told a meeting of the editors of the Hebrew press in Tel Aviv.
Asserting that the “goal has not yet been reached” and “many dangers face us,” the Jewish Agency chairman declared that “we still have to fight for the borders of the future state in the United Nations and stand guard over them here.” He called on all Jews to put forth their greatest efforts to avert the “chaos” predicted by High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham when the British evacuate the country.
Ben Gurion insisted that the Jews must depend upon their own resources to guard their state. He pointed to the fact that the government’s attitude toward evacuation and the projected Jewish state was still unsettled. “What inheritance will they (the government) leave the country and its inhabitants, and how will evacuation be carried out?” he asked.
He also reported that it was planned to continue the employment of all persons, Jews and Arabs alike, in government posts if they chose to remain. Finally, he declared that the Jews favored the UNSCOP proposal of economic unity between the two states. Ben Gurion said that the Zionists were gratified that the Palestine issue had provided a common meeting ground for the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Irgun Zvai Leumi broadcast today praising Soviet support for a Jewish state. The broadcast, however, questioned “how such support can go together with partition, which is no more than establishing a ghetto in Palestine, moreover since the designated borders will be changed to meet Jamal Husse ini’s demands and ambitions.”
TWO IRGUNISTS CONVICTED BY BRITISH COURT; DEATH SENTENCE BEING WEIGHED
A British military court today found two Jews guilty of possession of weapons, and will pronounce sentence tomorrow. The Jews, Joseph Gabriel and Abraham Katalan, who were charged with being Irgunist guards for two British constables kidnapped for two days last summer, refused to participate in the proceedings.
The reason given for the delay in announcing sentence was that the members of the court were not unanimous in their decision. This would tend to indicate that the court is considering imposing a death sentence, since under the Emergency Defense Regulations a unanimous decision is required only in the case of a death sentence. the defense attorney appealed to the judges to spare the lives of the two youths to that they might live to witness the “new era which Palestine is facing.”
Two hundred and sixteen Jewish deportees left Cyprus today for Palestine board an Agency-chartered steamer. Another 150 will leave on Friday, completing the current month’s quota. The government today announced the immigration quota for the Oct. 15-Nov. 14 period, comprising the usual 1,700 visas, 1,500 of which ##re for Jews.
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