Clearing the decks for an expected intensification of the war in the Near East, the British administration of Palestine has taken severe measures to combat possible fifth column activities.
A decree was announced in the official Palestine Gazette yesterday providing the death penalty for persons “helping, attempting to help or conspiring with others to commit an act designed or likely to aid the enemy’s naval, military or air operations or to impede such operations of His Majesty’s forces.”
The measure came as High Commissioner Sir Harold A. MacMichael was considering a series of proposals for defense of Tel Aviv against further Italian air raids submitted to him by Mayor Israel Rokach.
MacMichael visited Rokach in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and conveyed to him the military commander’s sympathy over Monday’s air raid in which more than a hundred persons were killed. The High Commissioner also contributed to a fund for immediate alleviation of distress, visited the Hadassah Hospital, first-aid stations and Air Raid Precautions headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Lady MacMichael, wife of the High Commissioner, representing the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John’s, visited Tel Aviv on Tuesday and donated L500 for relief of the raid victims.
A total of 107 victims were interred in two huge common graves on Tuesday.
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