High Commissioner Given Sweeping Powers to Curb Illegal Immigration

High Commissioner Lord Gort was today given sweeping powers to curb illegal immigration into Palestine, including the right to detain for an indefinite period persons attempting to enter the country illegally.

The order, published in the Official Gazette, also gives the Palestine Government authority to confiscate any vessel or aircraft used to smuggle in illegal immigrants, and provides fines of $4,000, or imprisonment or both, for the owners, masters or agents of any such vessels or planes. The presence of illegal immigrants will be considered proof of the guilt of those in command.

Jewish soldiers billeted near Rehovoth have gone on a hunger strike to protest the arrest of seven of their comrades who were on guard at the munitions depot at (##)voth when it was raided last week by a band of armed Jews. The seven are apparently suspected of complicity in the robbery, during which the attackers made off with over 200 rifles, fifteen machine guns and a large quantity of ammunition, grenades, steal helmets and uniforms.

Reuters reports today that an exchange of correspondence on the subject of Palestine between the late President Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, who set in February this year on board an American cruiser in the Red Sea, will be published tomorrow in an Arabia newspaper in the Middle East. The letter, in reply to Ibn Soud’s lengthy statement of the Arab case for Palestine, is alleged to have promised at to take part in decisions affecting the existing status of Palestine without full consultation with Arabs and Jews and renewed assurances that he and his Government would take no action which might make enemies of the Arab people.