The Star, a Liberal, pro-sanctions evening paper, joined the laborite Daily Herald today in charging Italy with fomenting Arab disorders in Palestine.
In an editorial attack on Italy, the Star declares:
“The fine Italian hand is also apparent in the outbreak of Arab terrorism in Palestine in which nineteen Jews have been murdered. By bribery and other methods consonant with the Machiavellian policy, disaffections are being fomented among Arabs with an eye to the embarrassment of Britain.”
A columnist of the Star states:
“If the British Government chooses to publish the evidence it has recently been collecting of Italian intrigue in Palestine, the world will have another surprise. What is most surprising about this particular business is the type of Italian institution and agency by which the Italian secret service operates. It has been found to include ecclesiastical channels.”
The Daily Herald featured a sensational report that foreign agents, chiefly Italians, are behind recent outbreaks in Palestine and that this situation was considered by a special meeting of the British cabinet Monday night.
Declaring that investigations are still proceeding in Palestine, the Herald asserts that the troop reinforcements sent to Palestine were made necessary by the danger of foreign agents’ stirring Arabs to violence.
The purpose of the agitation, the Herald says, is to embarrass the British Government in the present crisis that has arisen over Italy’s annexation of Ethiopia, by fomenting Arab hostility against the British mandate.
The Herald alleges that a large quantity of Italian knives was discovered in Transjordan, a British mandated territory neighboring Palestine.
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