Murder By N.Z. Troops Alleged

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30443, 18 May 1964, Page 1

Murder By N.Z. Troops Alleged

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, May 17. A book published in London yesterday tells how New Zealand troops in Palestine in World War I killed or maimed all the men in the Arab village of Sarafand, according to a review from London printed in the Sydney “Sun-Herald” today.

The book, “Armageddon,” is by Captain Cyril Falls, regarded, says the “Sun-Herald,” as one of the world’s most authoritative military historians.

Australian troops watched and applauded as the New Zealanders carried out the massacre, Captain Falls says.

The book reviews Allenby’s final campaign in Palestine and Syria in 1918—the last great exploit of the cavalry in war, the “Sun Herald” says. Captain Falls, who wrote the official history of General Allenby’s campaign, uses the massacre of the village of Sarafand to illustrate Allenby’s explosive temper and violent language. Once Allenby’s furious temper took control, he says. THEFT BY NIGHT One night a thief from the village of Sarafand, a notorious nest of thieves, pulled from under a New Zealand trooper’s head a bag which served him as a pillow. The man sprang up in pursuit, but was shot dead with a revolver. His comrades surrounded the village. Without waiting for G.H.Q.’s examination of the evidence, the troops, after several days, entered the village, passed out the women and children, and set about killing the males.

How many were killed is unknown.

But the butcher’s bill was heavy. It is doubtful whether any man escaped being killed or maimed.

To make assurance doubly sure, the New Zealanders burned the Bedouin encampment close by—still, as from the first, watched and applauded by the Australians. OFFICIAL STORY Captain Falls says both sides were in the wrong, but the troops more than the commander-in-chief. The Australian official history gives the impression they were equally in the wrong. The offence of the New Zealanders was heinous and called for anger, particularly so because, though atrocities have been a commonplace of many wars, none had been exhibited in Palestine, Captain Falls says. Allenby called for the names of the leaders of the Sarafand killing but got no response. BAD LANGUAGE

He then had the brigades formed in hollow square, and, though his indignation was praiseworthy, his language was far from being so.

The New Zealanders and the whole division would have accepted punishment which they knew they deserved, but they did not accept his abuse. The bitterness went on

into the middle of 1919, when an Australian went to visit Allenby in Cairo and reported how unhappy the situation was. Could he not do something to mend It? No, Allenby never apologised and here he would not take back a word. What he did was to issue a loving farewell order to the Anzacs who remained, Captain Falls says.

No precise date of the alleged incident is given, but from the context it appears to have occurred shortly before or after the Turkish surrender on October 30, 1918.

[Sarafand, in Israel, is now known as Zerifin.]