United States Consul Robert Macatee today announced that he had been instructed to recall the passports of all Americans serving in a military capacity in Palestine. The consul’s statement added:
“The United States government has informed the American Consulate General in Jerusalem that it has noted press statements Indicating some American citizens, including some American veterans who are studying in Palestine under the GI Bill of Sights, have identified themselves with armed groups in this country and have participated in fighting and other activities related to the present disturbances in Palestine. Three American citizens have been reported killed in such activities.
“The American Consulate General has been instructed to announce the view of the United States government that American passports are not granted to American citizens for the purpose of proceeding abroad to enter foreign military service. The United States government most strongly disapproves of and opposes any interference or participating by American citizens in foreign political activities and especially of participation in foreign armed forces.”
JEWISH AGENCY LAUDS U.N. DECISION ON MILITIA
The U.N. Implementation Commission decision yesterday to recommend the adoption of the Jewish Agency’s plan for the organization of a Jewish militia at the earliest opportunity was today hailed by an Agency spokesman here as “a step in the right direction.” Enumerating other measures which might halt the bloodshed in Palestine, he urged the United Nations and the U.S. to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on the Arabs and said that an international police force should be sent to this country to augment the Jewish defense force, whatever form it took.
An appeal to “both Arabs and Jews” to halt the robbery of trains, particularly food trains, vas issued today by the government food controller. Asserting that the robberies were creating a danger of a food shortage, he said that innocent men, woman and children of both peoples might suffer.
Fighting on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa border, which started early last night and lasted until nearly dawn today, erupted again this morning and coat the life of one Jew, Ligitz Strauss, 33. A number of other Jews and Arabs were wounded before the two pronged Arab attack was finally repulsed. The Arab bands operated from the Salameh quarter of Jaffa end the village of Abu Kebir.
A three-story house in the Jerusalem Katamon quarter was blown up by the Haganah shortly before noon. The building, which overlooks the fashionable Jewish Rehavia section, had been used as a snipers post by the Arabs. A party of Jews attacked the village of Yazur again today, killing at least one Arab. Yazur, an Arab town athwart the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, was the scene last week of the killing of seven Jewish. settlement police in an ambush. Four Jewish-owned houses which were nearing completion on Mt. Canaan, near Safad, were blown up by -Arabs, and a deserted Jewish National Fund structure along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv railroad was also destroyed.
Five trains were held up in the last two days by Arab bands which made off with a large quantity of merchandise, including military supplies. Eight Arabs were arrested after one of the robberies and four Arabs in a second attempt.
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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.
