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Evening Star, Issue 25995, 9 January 1947, Page 5

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ABSTRACT GAINS OBTAINED AUTHORITY SHOWED ITS POWER LONDON, January 8. The Jerusalem correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that the series of searches and interrogations which was begun because of the flogging of British service personnel nine days ago has now been completed. Its success has been no greater than was expected—a comparatively insignificant number of terrorists have been caught, and small quantities of arms discovered. No concrete gains beyond these were looked for. The object and cause of the operations lay in the fact that it was necessary to' show that the British Army and authority could not be mocked. Also, if the Administration had not acted, then the troops themselves would probably have done so. The question everyone is now asking more urgently than ever, the correspondent continues, is: What happens next? Hardly anyone believes that the terrorists wall stay quiets although they may bold their hand somewhat until the Army relaxes a little Whatever the terrorists do, the Army will react. No longer will the Administration turn the other cheek, but how, far it will go and how far the Civil branch of the Government will turn affairs over to the military branch depend on

the provocation that the terrorists give. It is essential in the Jewish interest that terrorisms shall actively as well as passively be opposed by the Jews themselves, otherwise their cause will continue to be identified with violence in the estimation of _ the British people, says ‘ The Times ’ in a leading article. The British troops and police in Palestine are not an occupying army; they are custodians of publio peace, and their sole function is to preserve the existing institutions so long, and only so long, as it takes for a new regime to be established. They have a right to ask that their function shall be respected by the Jewish community, for whose freedom they fought in the war, yet hitherto that community has taken no action to repress the terrorism bv anything except moral suasion. The Igun Zvai Leunn posted pamphlets in Tel-Aviv last night, declaring that a war of revenge would begin if" the death sentence on a 33-year-o!d Jewish" gunman, Dov Gruner, was not commuted.