Jewish Agency Calls Arms Trial in Palestine “crude Frame-up” Against Jews

The Jewish Agency for Palestine today cabled to the British Government a vigorous protest against the “slanderous anti-Jewish attacks” made by Major Richard B. Verdin, council for the defense in the trial of the two British soldiers who were sentenced here yesterday by a military court to fifteen years each for selling arms to a Jewish organization.

The name of the organization was not mentioned during the trial, but there were hints several times of an alleged connection between it and the Jewish Agency. Major Verdin, pleading for the two British soldiers, suggested that persons who are sending funds to Palestine for Jewish refugee settlement would be disappointed if they knew that in some cases the money raised is being spent for depriving the military forces of its arms, thus harming the cause of the United Nations.

The Jewish Agency, in the protest cabled today to London, described the incident as a crude frame-up to defame the Jewish people, discredit the Jewish war effort, and bring Jewish soldiers into disrepute in the eyes of their British comrades and of the higher military authorities. It charged this was part of a systematic whispering campaign conducted for some time by anti-Jewish groups in Palestine against the Jewish Agency and the Jews of Palestine in an attempt to prejudice Anglo-American public opinion against Jews and the Jewish future in Palestine.

The Jewish Agency concludes with an appeal asking that “His Majesty’s Government inquire and take the necessary measures to end these political intrigues.” The protest was signed by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency.

The trial was continued by the same military court today with two Palestinian Jews, Abraham Rachlis, a taxi driver from Haifa, and Leib Sirkis, a Palestine policeman, the defendants.