The fashionable Empire Cafe here was set afire today, after the owners allegedly refused to contribute funds to the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Group. Several unidentified persons overpowered the watchman and set one whole floor of the establishment ablaze.
The fire climaxed a night of violence, during which a police inspector was shot and killed in the center of the city by unknown assailants, while land mines exploded under a freight train and two military trucks. Five soldiers who were riding in the trucks were injured.
In an attempt to prevent the inspector’s killer from escaping from the city, police set up road checks at all exits from Jerusalem and searched all vehicles. Intensive searches are also going on in other parts of the country, but no arrests have been made.
The blasting of military vehicles has become almost commonplace in the past week. Despite a rigid dusk to dawn curfew on the roads and the use of armored cars equipped with mine detectors, terrorists continue to strew the main traffic arteries with mines.
The fourth Arab to be killed in ten days was shot today by persons reportedly opposed to the sale of Arab land to Jews. A leaflet issued last week by Arab extremis groups warned that all “traitors” who sold land would be killed.
The Palestine Government has decided to extend aid to Palestinian soldiers attending Hebrew University, as part of its program to assist ex-servicemen. The students will receive text books and $800 a year, which includes tuition fees. This assistance will enable between 120 and 140 former soldiers to resume their studies at the university and will make a university education possible for a considerable number of new students, most of whom enlisted in the Army immediately after completing their secondary education. Representatives of Hebrew University cooperated with the government in arranging the plan.
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.
