LATE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 21, 19 October 1938, Page 6

LATE NEWS

TROOPS PATROL JERUSALEM

Rebels Congregating In

Moslem Area * SHOTS EXCHANGED Large-Scale Mopping-Up Process Planned By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received October 19, 1.50 a.m.) JERUSALEM, October 18. Troops in full fighting kit have occupied all high buildings surrounding the old walled city and the rebels are congregating in the Moslem area. Gathering in the dusk, heavily armed Arabs encircled the old city, adopting a threatening attitude, and also delivering arms to their countrymen in the mosque area by means of ropes over the walls. A detachment of the trans-Jordan frontier force reinforced the troops and additional armoured cars and military patrols surrounded the new city, in which the curfew was imposed last night. Steel-helmeted troops with fixed bayonets are partrolling the suburbs, “shoot on sight” being the new order of the day. Under the shadow of the holy places rifles are crackling intermittently all through the day and night as the military exchange shots with the rebel snipers. The steady arrival of additional troops and the summary treatment of terrorists is the only evidence of the tightening of British policy throughout Palestine since Sir Harold Mac Michael’s London conferences.

Specific measures are being formulated, however, whereby a large-scale mopping-up process will be initiated preparatory to discussions for a scheme of settlement following the issue of the Woodhead report.