Jewish Agency, Haganah Demand Release of Kidnapped British Officers, One Escapes

Jewish Agency leaders and the Haganah, largest Jewish resistance group in Palestine, today appealed to the kidnappers of five British officers, urging the release of the abducted man.

The Haganah appeal, broadcast over its secret radio, the “Voice of Israel,” followed the disclosure that Sir Evelyn Barker, British military commander in Palestine, had received a note from the Stern Group informing him that they were holding the officers as “prisoners of war.” The note said that the five would be treated as such and asked Barker to give similar treatment to Joseph Simkhon and Itzchak Azbel, who were sentenced to death last week by a British military court.

Moshe Shertok, political chief of the Jewish Agency, issued a statement describing the kidnapping as “an act of lunacy,” He said that the Agency has joined in urging release of the officers. “If those responsible for the kidnappings still possess any feeling of responsibility, or a sense of even the smallest consideration for public opinion, they will release the officers immediately,” Shertok continued.

(David Ben Gurion, chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency, called on Colonial Secretary George Hall in London late yesterday to express the Agency’s “grief and horror” at the kidnapping of the officers who had come to the club in Tel Aviv as guests of the Jews. He gave Hall a message for transmission to the Agency, urging it to appeal to the Jewish community to aid the authorities in tracking down the kidnappers.)

Major H.B. Chadwick, who was kidnapped in Jerusalem yesterday escaped from his captors today when the sentry left to guard him fell asleep. He immediately reported to military headquarters which sent raiding squads into the section of Jerusalem inhabited by Bukharian Jews, where Chadwick said he had been held captive. He reported that he had not been harmed and was provided with adequate food.

WEIZMANN APPEALS TO BRITISH COMMANDER FOR CLEMENCY FOR DOOMED YOUTHS

It is reported that the other kidnapped officers are being detained at separate places “somewhere in Palestine.” They are being well treated, the report said, but will be held until Berker reviews the sentences of Azbel and Simkhon.

According to the newspaper Hamashkiff the British commander-in-chief has received a note from Dr. Weizmann, pointing out the execution of the two youths would not help the situation, and urging clemency. Sir Evelyn has also received appeals from Palestine organizations in the United States.

Meanwhile, two other Jews, Yehoshua Tamler, 27, and Menachme Czerniakow, 20, were today sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a military tribunal. They were captured after attacks on a rail station near Beth Yam on April 4.

Tel Aviv today was still cut of bounds to British troops, although the curfew which made it a dead city yesterday has been lifted. Searches continue there, since the military authorities still believe that the kidnapped officers are somewhere in the city. A dusk-to-dawn road curfew has been imposed on all road traffic in the Lydda district, which includes Tel Aviv, on the roads surrounding Haifa and on the Jewish sections of the Samaria district.

As a precautionary measure, senior British officers have been instructed not to appear in public unless accompanied by two armed escorts. Military and civil authorities are reported by Arab newspapers as having decided to ask that more troops be sent to Palestine.

BRITISH OFFICERS KILL JEW IN STREETS OF TEL AVIV

The death toll among Jews rose to 20 during the night, when 35-year-old Abraham Rosenberg was killed in Tel Aviv 20 minutes after the curfew was lifted at midnight. Rosenberg, who was walking in the street with his sister-in-law, was shot by two British officers, allegedly in revenge for the kidnappings. The assailants fled, but were captured by British military police, who took them into custody.

Another incident involving British officers was reported from Kfar Giledi, where two settlers were killed yesterday during a raid by troops. While the raid was in progress one of the colony’s residents who had recently been demobilized from the South African forces said to the officer in command of the raiding party: “Is this our reward for our fight against Hitler?” The commander replied: “We fought Hitler only for you. If I had the right, I would shoot every one of you myself.”

Hundreds of persons participated today in funeral services for Herzl Perl of Machnaim and Zvi Ashkenasi of Yesod Haamala, the two Kfar Giladi victims. The censors have prohibited any reference in the press to the fact that units of the Transjordan Frontier Force were responsible for their deaths and the wounding of other Jews at Kfar Giladi.