Four Arabs were wounded, one of them seriously, in a clash with British police at dawn today when they were caught setting fire to a Jewish bakery in Beit Vegan, a suburb of Jerusalem.
When discovered by the police, the Arabs retreated and opened fire, the police returning the fire.
The twentieth Jewish victim of recent disorders, Dr. K. Feldberg, 38, died Saturday night at the Haifa Hadassah hospital where he had undergone an operation after being injured when his car was stoned by Arab demonstrators. His funeral Sunday morning passed off quietly.
The shooting this morning climaxed a week-end of widespread incendiarism that has intensified the tension in many parts of Palestine. In the last twenty-four hours, it is estimated that fires set by Arabs have done a minimum of $50,000 damage to Jewish-owned property.
The situation reached the point today where High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope is considering signing an order for collective punishment of Arab villages believed to be sheltering incendiaries. Such action has long been demanded by Jewish communities.
Newspapers today estimated that the fire which destroyed a lumber yard at Haifa yesterday caused a loss of $25,000.
Other cases of incendiarism reported overnight include the following:
Complete destruction of the Nesher warehouse, near the Haifa railway, with $10,000 estimated damage. Four thousand skins were destroyed when fire gutted a tannery at Tel Aviv. More than 1,000 dunams of crops were destroyed in the Jewish colony of Ein Harod.
Four hundred trees were uprooted in the vicinity of Mishmar ha-Emek. During the night fire broke out in the Balfour Forest, but was swiftly extinguished before it gained headway. A similar incident occurred at Giveat Shelosha, near Petach Tikvah.
An Arab carrying bombs in his pocket was arrested at Tel Aviv.
In Jerusalem an Arab was arrested on a charge of cutting telephone wires between this city and Jericho.
ARABS LOOSEN RAILWAY TRACKS
Arabs yesterday resorted to loosening railroad tracks, cutting telephone wires and puncturing automobile tires by spreading nails on roads to tie up communications as the general strike against Jewish immigration entered its third week.
The automobiles of the American Consul here and of the High Commissioner were among the more than 100 whose tires were punctured. When the American consul’s car was halted in the Meah Shearim quarter of Jerusalem by punctured tires, police transferred him into another automobile.
Loosened rails were discovered in several parts of the country before any accident had occurred and the railroads were placed under special guard. Cut telephone wires between Jerusalem and northern districts were quickly repaired by the authorities.
Despite Arab attempts to blockade Jewish communities, which included attacks on Arab peasants bringing milk and vegetables to market the Tel Aviv Municipal Council announced at a press conference that the city was well provided with flour, sugar and other foodstuffs. Curfew was lifted last night on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
It was learned that Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, during a visit with Moshe Shertok to High Commissioner Wauchope protested vigorously against alleged Government laxity and emphasized that security was the obvious duty of any Government.
He also discussed immigration certificates, it was learned, which led to the belief that the new immigration schedule would be announced before next Sunday, when Dr. Weizmann is to leave for London.
ARAB LEADERS SPLIT IN STRIKE ACTION
The problem of whether to call Arab Government employes out on strike caused the first serious split between the factions headed by the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini, and by Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, ex-mayor of Jerusalem. The Nashashibi group demanded that Government employes be forced to join the strike, while the Mufti’s group opposed the proposal on the ground the employes might lose their positions by striking.
Although goods consigned for exhibition at the Levant Fair in Tel Aviv were held up at Jaffa harbor by the strike, the Rumanian and Polish pavilions opened for two hours. All foreign pavilions are expected to open next weekend.
Hebrew newspapers bitterly criticized the Government for alleged inactivity and asked whether the Government or the Arab Strike Committee was ruling the country. The papers demanded additional protection, especially for the Jewish colonies.
Arab newspapers reported that Yahya Mohammed Hamid ed-Din, Imam of Yemen, had cabled King Edward at London asking justice for the Palestine Arabs.
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