CAIRO ASSASSINS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1944, Page 5

CAIRO ASSASSINS

REPORTED CONFESSION

MEMBERS OF TERRORIST GANG

RUGBY, November 8. Lord Moyne'was given a military funeral to-day. The body will be embalmed and flown to England.

Lord Moyne’s assassins have confessed, according to a Cairo message that they were sent from Palestine to Egypt by the “Freedom of Israel” movement, otherwise known as the Stern gang, 'to murder Lord Moyne. They are said to have confessed’ they killed him because as head of a political department of the British Government in the Middle East he was carrying out a policy contrary to Jewish national interest. The identity of the prisoners is still not established. The names they gave were Mosche Cohen Israel and Charles Salzmann. The confession was made to Palestine police officials. Egyptian police are still silent on the rest of the inquiry which may throw some light on any plans the assassins may have had for killing other persons in Egypt. The correspondent adds, it is clear now that the Stern gang has ceased to limit activities to Palestine, but is carrying out terrorism elsewhere in the Middle East. The Associated Press correspondent says the men confessed after 36 hours of almost ceaseless questioning. The Cairo police believe there are several other Jewish terrorists at large in Egvpt with a similar mission to that of Cohen and Salzmann. In London it is recalled that the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Stanley) on October 11, told the Commons that there has been a recrudescence of Jewish terrorist acivities in Palestine. These were carried out by Irgun Svai Leumi which is a military organisation of the “New Zionist Organisation.” Mr. Stanley added: “These attacks, the object of which is to further political aims, seriously impede the war effort of the United Nations, and can do nothing but harm to the Jewish cause. Th§y are the work of a relatively small body of extremists, and are condemned by responsible leaders of Jewry in Palestine and througnout the world. I am sure the whole House will join me in condemning these outrages and expressing sympathy with the victims of this murderous campaign.” In the Lords, to-day, Lord Samuel expressed the distress he felt at the report that the murderers came from the Jewish population of Palestine. It it should be so he was sure the population would extirpate from their midst this group of criminals. JEWS URGED TO ACT

RUGBY, Nov. 8

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Palestine Committee Mr. V. S. Hammersley, made the following statement this afternoon:—

“No more injurious blow against Jewish national interests could have been struck than by the cowardly assassination of Lord Moyne. The assailants, self-confessed members of the Stern Group, are two of the small number of Jewish terrorists who for some time past have dominated the Palestine political scene. The Jewish population of Palestine is now some half a million. They should be sufficiently strong and cohesive to stamp out this viper of terrorism whose ugly manifestations have done much to turn British public opinion against legitimate Jewish aspirations. “I must urge on Jews in Palestine the vital necessity to support actively the forces of order and purge all dangerous extremists from their midst. Terrorism will deflect the course of justice and may destroy the cause which well-wishers of the Jews have deeply at heart.”