BRITISH TROOPS IN PALESTINE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22594, 27 December 1938, Page 9

BRITISH TROOPS IN PALESTINE

WAR OFFICE DENIES ATROCITY STORIES

GERMAN PRESS lEATLRES ARAB ALLEGATIONS

LONDON, December 23. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times” states that the German press gives prominence to a telegram from “The* Palestine Arab Committee." sent from London and issued by the official German news agency, alleging “incredible brutalities” by British troops in Palestine. The telegram alleges that British troops are gouging out the eyes of Arabs before killing them, and also torturing the civilian population. “The popular ncthod of bringing them to heel is a riding whip, which nearly every Englishman carries,” it declares.

The Beirut correspondent of the German news agency reports an Arab newspaper as stating that British troops at Attil shut up three Arabs in a shed, which was then set on fire, burning them alive. The same newspaper is also quoted as saying that all Christians in Palestine and Lebanon are refraining from Christmas celebrations "as a token of grief at the terrible conditions prevailing in the country.” The British War Office to-day denied emphatically the slanderous allegations against the conduct of British troops in Palestine which have appeared in the German press, states a British Official Wireless message. The latest statements in this campaign, which allege atrocities such as the gouging out of the eyes of prisoners, and the burning of prisoners alive in a shed, are untrue.

TEMPORARY TRUCE IN PALESTINE

(Received December 26, 7.10 p.m.)

JERUSALEM. December 23.

After a day of shootings and bombings the Arabs declared a Christmas truce on condition that British troops do not take the offensive during the season-