Scattered attacks on Jews, a continued Arab general strike and incitement in Moslem newspapers kept at a high pitch today the tension that followed four days of disorders that took the lives of eighteen Jews and twelve Arabs and resulted in injuries to more than 190 persons. (Official figures, list 15 Jewish and 5 Arab dead.)
Police dispersed demonstrations of Arabs, who emerged from mosques and headed for the Jerusalem Jewish quarter. British and Jewish policemen were reported injured. Arab schoolboys attempted for two hours to demonstrate on the streets of Jerusalem.
A police detail routed a demonstration of Arab students who had attacked and stoned the Italian school at Terrasanta because the students had refused to join the Arab strike. In Old Jerusalem, a vigorous order by District Commissioner Campbell caused Arabs to halt their attempts to terrorize Jews into closing their shops.
Benjamin White, a seventy-year-old Jew, was attacked by two Arabs wielding iron bars while walking in the German colony. A British policeman passed by on a motorcycle without interfering.
It was learned today that French, German and Italian consular officials, in addition to a French officer from Syria, were among those attacked at Jenin when mistaken for Jews.
REPORT ARABS PLAN DEMONSTRATION TODAY
Persistent reports were spread in both Arab and Jewish circles that Arabs were preparing a huge demonstration in Jerusalem tomorrow. El Liwaa, Arab daily, reported from Nablus that the Arab Nationalist War Council had decided to hold similar demonstrations throughout the country.
Arabs sent thirty to forty emissaries to neighboring countries to spread reports that the Jews were firing on Arab villages and killing Arabs, and that the authorities were not interfering.
Bitter agitation against the Jews continued within Palestine and inflammatory reports filled Arab newspapers.
The notorious agitator, Sheikh Faroukh, issued a proclamation to Arabs declaring that “Arabs in the fatherland are in danger” and urging them to “defend it at any cost.”
Falastin, Christian Arab daily, reported that the Jews were suffering from the Arab boycott against them, adding that the Jewish chamber of commerce had appealed to the authorities for aid.
A demand for increased Arab immigration from abroad was voiced by El Liwaa. Jemal al Husseini, head of the Palestine Arab Party, protested to the Government against the proposed expulsion of Hauranis, who were figuring prominently in anti-Jewish attacks.
The Jewish Chamber of Commerce of Jaffa and Tel Aviv telegraphed High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope declaring the situation would not have become so serious if the authorities had not obstructed Jewish endeavors and had increased the number of Jewish workers at harbors.
The telegram demanded that Sir Arthur take prompt measures to restore economic life to normal, especially in re-establishment connections at the Jaffa harbor.
While Tel Aviv reported no new attacks there or in neighboring colonies, incendiary blazes set last night in a synagogue in the Menshiya quarter and in three Jewish buildings added to the destruction. A Jewish factory was also razed.
COMMUNIQUE LISTS 16 JEWS, 5 ARABS DEAD
An official communique last night announced that the Jaffa-Tel Aviv casualties since the beginning of the disorders Sunday until Wednesday morning were sixteen Jews and five Arabs killed. Private advices list the total of Jewish dead at eighteen and the Arab dead at twelve.
The communique stated that twenty-six Jews and thirty-one Arabs were wounded seriously enough to require hospitalization, while forty-nine Jews and forty-one Arabs are under treatment as out-patients. Eight other persons are listed as having been slightly injured, making the official list of wounded total seventy-five Jews, seventy-two Arabs and eight unclassified, or a total of 155. Private sources estimate the total wounded at upwards of 190.
Arabs set fire to the fields and crops near Benshem yesterday. A children’s colony in that section was not affected, nor were any of the children injured. A military detachment aided in localizing the blaze.
A big fire that broke out in the Keren Hateimanim quarter of Jaffa was localized by firemen.
Three Jews were injured by police in the Florentine quarter of Tel Aviv. They were taken to the hospital.
A Sephardic Jewess was killed by an Arab in the Wadi Rushmieh suburb of Haifa. The motive was officially described as personal.
POST WARNINGS AGAINST SPREAD OF RUMORS
Streets of Tel Aviv and Jaffa full of Government posters containing stern warnings against the spread of false rumors. Anyone found guilty of spreading such rumors, the posters warn, will be punished by three years in prison.
High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope issued a message to the country expressing profound distress at the disturbances which have brought death in four days to eighteen Jews and twelve Arabs and injuries to an estimated 190 persons.
In his statement, Sir Arthur blamed the disorders on false rumors, spread to incite the public, and appealed to all citizens to check their circulation. He urged that credence be given only to authen- ticated facts, to assist the police, exercise the greatest moderation and self-restraint and to carry on their usual tasks.
He concluded with the assurance that a “law abiding public who I know constitute the great majority of the Palestine people, can be sure that the Government will suppress all disorders and take all necessary measures against those who disseminate false rumors and encourage measures of violence.”
It was established today that thirty Jews have been arrested in Jaffa since Friday on charges that have not as yet been disclosed.
Groups of Jews arrived yesterday under police escort from Hebron to be quartered here at Government expense as a result of the tense situation in the city which bore the brunt of the 1929 massacres. Refusal of Arabs to supply the Jews with food was the immediate factor in the Government’s decision to effect the evacuation, the Government preferring to maintain them at its expense in Jerusalem, instead of feeding them in Hebron.
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