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Leaders of Cyprus Jews Fear Disturbance if Transfer of Dp’s to Israel is Delayed

January 30, 1949
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Leaders of the Jewish refugees in Cyprus today expressed fears that serious disturbances might break out among the Israel-bound population here in the event that their transfer to Israel is delayed.

Conditions among the Jews here reached a stage of tenseness today following the non-arrival of vessels scheduled to bring the Cyprus DP’s to Haifa. The camp leaders demanded that increased shipping facilities be made available immediately in the light of British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin’s statement in Commons this week that Britain will not remain “indifferent” in the event of renewed Palestine fighting.

The Cyprus Supreme Court today denied an application for a writ of habeas corpus requested by Jewish internees on Cyprus a number of weeks ago, prior to the British decision to release all detained refugees.

The court ruled that the termination of the Palestine Mandate did not invalidate the law governing illegal immigration and that the Jews were being held under that measure.

Although the present program of clearing the camps made the decision appear of academic importance only to some observers, others pointed out that it is important because of the probability of an international dispute “between Britain and Israel over who shall pay the coat of establishing and maintaining the prison camps, Britain or the Palestine Mandate Government, whose funds have been frozen in London.

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