Sinks Cyprus Deportation Ferry in Haifa Harbor; 300 Immigrants Questioned

The Empire Lifeguard, British deportation vessel, ## today blown up and sunk in Haifa harbor, it was officially announced. The ##anah is believed responsible for the operation.

The ferry had just discharged all of a group of some 300 visaless Jews returned from Cyprus to Palestine to await their release under the regular monthly ##igration quota. It is believed that the explosive charge was placed in the ##eguard’s engine room while the passengers were being embarked at Famagusta. The passengers have been detained for questioning.The ship is lying half submerged at its dock, in 20 feet of water. A ##, which broke out before the explosion, was put out by asbestes clad firemen ## averted the possibility of a boiler explosion.

This is the fourth bomb to have been planted on a deportation ship by the ##anah. No casualties resulted from any of the actions. The first attack was made ## the Empire Rival in Haifa harbor August 21, 1946 when “frogmen” attached limpet ##es to her side after she transported some 2,300 immigrants to Cyprus. The second ## third explosions occurred on the Ocean Vigour in Famagusta, April 3, 1947, and ## the Rival the following night as it was proceeding from Haifa to Port Said.

ATTACKS ON BRITISH TROOPS CONTINUE THROUGHOUT COUNTRY

Four British soldiers were seriously injured today when a truck in which they were riding was blasted in Haifa’s Ahuza section. The force of the explosion ?rled the vehicle off the road and into a nearby dry stream bed. Later, an officer {SPAN}##{/SPAN} injured in Haifa when a jeep was blown up.

A two-ton truck was blasted on the Gaza road near Rishon L’zion, wounding ## officer and six enlisted men, one seriously. The electrically detonated bomb consisted of two gasoline cans filled with metal rivets.

Three soldiers were wounded seriously and one officer slightly when a jeep ## which they were driving blew up near Tel Tsur, between Nathanya and Raanana. Troops searching the Ramat Tiomkin area discovered an abandoned well which was ##ched with one mortar bomb, a quantity of gelignite, 465 rounds of ammunition, a ##ench grenade, military clothing stamped U.S. War Dept, and Irgun Zvai Leumi ##mphlets.Representatives of the Hebrew press charged today at a press conference called by the Palestine Information Officer that British security forces in Palestine ##nd plainclothes policemen armed with sub-machine guns to private homes from which they fire on uniformed police and troops, leading to violence and creating the repression that Jewish terrorists are attacking the police.

Declaring that total war is the reply of the Irgun to doportations of Jewish immigrants from Palestine, the organization’s underground radio broadcast today that ## will continue our struggle until the situation is so untenable that the (Palestine) problem will have to be brought before the United Nations Security Council.” ## broadcast added that the destination of the British deportation ships was of ## consequence.