Fifteen thousand Jewish refugees, part of a “new army of Israel organized in central Europe,” have been smuggled into Palestine in recent months, it was asserted today by Lord Forbes in an article in the Sunday Express. Lord Forbes said the Jews were being transported, by way of the Rumanian Black Sea port of Constanza, in frail ships hired for about $100,000 each. He declared they came from Poland, Germany, Rumania and Bulgaria and were an “unusual, sad looking lot, all under 30, and “clean and athletic in appearance.”
“These young Jews,” Lord Forbes asserted, “were collected and selected by an organization in Warsaw to break up the British White Paper policy in Palestine and to reconquer the Holy Land for the Jews. They will fight both Arab and British policemen. They are the new army of Israel organized in central Europe. The money for these enterprises is subscribed principally in England and America. The Germans are said to help the project because every new Jew in Palestine means more trouble for Britain with the Arabs.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
