Irgun Defies Ben Gurion Threat of Force; Charges He Cooperated with British

Replying tonight to David Ben Gurion’s blast against the terrorists yesterday, the Irgun Zvai Leumi declared that it was prepared to fight and charged Ben Gurion with cooperating with the British in the campaign to suppress the dissidents.

An announcer on the Irgun’s underground radio, “Voice of Fighting Zion,” said: “Ben Gurion wants to fight us, all right let him. We’re ready.” He charged that two years ago the chairman of the Jewish Agency executive had set the Haganah against the dissidents, but that this had only resulted in strengthening the extremists. Ben Gurion was also accused of ordering “his forces to cooperate with the White Paper government and the British Gestapo was provided with lists of our comrades who were arrested, kidnapped and tortured.”

An open clash between the Irgun and the Hagenah is not expected to take palce until after the Passover holidays, although it is known that the Haganah is ready to place a 24-hour guard around threataned points, if the police agree not to molest the guards or attempt to disarm them.

Dov Gruner and four other condemned Palestinian Jews have written to the Tel Aviv municipality asking that it cease its activities to obtain clemency for them as long as the British fefuse to recognize them as “prisoners of war,” it was learned today. The other four men are Eliezer Kashani, Mordechai Alkushi, Dov Resenbaum and Moshe Barazani.

It has been learned that responsible Jewish organizations are considering abandoning efforts to obtain clemency for the five and any other extremists condemned in the future as a measure to suppress terrorism. The anti-clemency feeling is growing not only in the Histradruth but also in the Jewish National Council. It is expected that the Rabbinate will continue to press for mercy on humanitarian grounds.

Mrs. Helen Friedman, Gruner’s sister, who flew to Palestine in an attempt to save her brother from the gallows, is preparing to return home. High Commissioner Sir Alan G. Cunningham has refused to see her as long as the case is under the jurisdiction of the courts.

PALESTINE TO SUFFER OIL FAMINE AS RESULT OF HAIFA REFINERY BOMBING

The Palestine Government announced that as result of the blowing up of the Shell Oil Company Refineries in Haifa, where fires were still raging today, the domestic oil supply would be sharply curtailed for an indefinite period, perhaps years. Oil company officials and government authorities were conferring today on contemplated rationing measures.

A government press officer, who said the damage now totalled $4,000,000, added that the demands of European countries would preclude the importation by Palestine of the machinery needed to rebuild the installations which were destroyed. It was indicated that the acute shortage of pertroleum products is the punishment with which the community was threatened in an ambiguous statement issued by Richard Stubbs, the Government’s press director, immediately after the blast took place.

Meanwhile, the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in Jerusalem was lifted this morning, exactly three weeks after its imposition on March 12. It was clamped down following an Irgunist attack on a military headquarters in the area of the city under martial rule.