Arabs killed a Jewish laborer today in an attack on the railway station at Majdal, bringing the Jewish death toll in five months of disorders to 81.
The slaying followed one of the bloodiest days the Holy Land has witnessed since the World War, during which an estimated forty persons were killed, including a British corporal, one Palestinian and five British constables, and thirty-three Arab insurgents.
An official communique said 27 Arabs were killed in yesterday’s engagement near Nahariya while heavy casualties were inflicted on an Arab band in a clash with police, troops and planes near Rosh Pina.
A heavy battle was reported going on in the Tulkarem hills with Arabs suffering many casualties.
Eyewitnesses to yesterday’s battle between Arab rebels, police, troops and planes near Rosh Pina reported today that the Arabs stripped the corpses of the fallen British soldiers and policemen and plunged daggers into them.
The continued violence was not unexpected since the Arab Supreme Committee, it was learned, yesterday decided it would under no circumstances alter its previous decision to maintain the 21-week-old general strike against Jewish immigration and sale of land to Jews.
The committee is expected to publish a statement in which it reproaches Great Britain for what it terms “surrendering” to Zionists.
It was learned this morning that the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, gave verbal ultimatums yesterday to the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini, and Ragheb bey Nashashibi, former Jerusalem mayor, to call a halt to the strike and its accompanying terrorism.
Both leaders failing to promise compliance, it is strongly rumored the High Commissioner today warned the Grand Mufti he would be exiled to Cyprus and Nashashibi to Malta.
Following the secret all-morning conference between High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope and the Arab leaders, Sir Arthur received Moshe Shertok, a member of the Palestine executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
A request by Arab guerilla warriors to include two representative was being considered tonight by the Arab Supreme Committee.
Meanwhile, the Syrian rebel, Fausi Bek Elkaukadji, who has joined the Arab forces, issued another of his leaflets from his hilly fastness, boasting of his intention to erect a “Hindenburg line” against future onslaughts by British troops.
Rosh Pina was the scene of a sharp clash which took the lives of four policemen bent on a tour of inspection. Attacked by Arabs near the town, three were instantly slain. The fourth, previously reported missing, was later found dead. The natives escaped with a Lewis gun, 1,000 cartridges and four rifles.
In the Nahariya encounter, a soldier and constable were killed out-right, two Palestinian policemen wounded, one of whom later died of his injuries. Three natives dead and twenty casualties were reported during an air battle.
Arabs fired upon telephone servicemen seeking to repair damaged lines. Three were wounded.
Curfew regulations in the Jerusalem sector, including the entire city, were tightened today by authorities forbidding residents to appear on the streets after six-thirty in the evening. The previous curfew had started at seven.
Two Arab homes in the village of Lubad were demolished today following yesterday’s mining of the Nablus road.
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