ROUND-UP OF JEWS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1946, Page 7

ROUND-UP OF JEWS

Tel Aviv Combed Building by Building SEARCH FOR TERRORISTS (Recd. 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, July 30. More than 16,000 troops are engaged in the Tel Aviv round-up, says Reuter’s Tel Aviv correspondent. The operations are expected to last at least five days. The troops have already arrested a number of members of the Irgun Svai Leumu. Major-General Cassels, who is in charge of the operations, said he was determined by hook or by crook to find the terrorists. Troops are combing Tel Aviv building by building. A spokesman for the Jewish Agency said the curfew in Tel Aviv and the neighbourhood was unprecedented in its severity. The decision to shoot on sight any’one even inadvertently contravening the order was a Draconic measure, the like of which had never previously been known in Palestine. “We can only hope that the troops engaged in these operations will maintain restraint, although General Cunningham’s broadcast is scarcely expected to serve as.a moderating factor.

British troops and the Palestine police early this morning began a round-up in Tel Aviv of 3000 Jews, men and women, in an effort to find the terrorists responsible for the bomb outrage at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, says the Associated Press. The operation in Tel Aviv is officially described as the detention of all known and suspected members of Irgun Zvai Leumi (the Jews’ “National Military Organisation”) and the Stem Gang. The troops, before they began the arrests, clapped down a curfew on the city. The curfew will be continued for an undisclosed period, but it will be lifted for two hours daily to enable residents to buy supplies. Anyone breaking the curfew will be shot on sight. Those detained will be held for identification and investigation, also for an undisclosed period. Cunningham’s Return. Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Cunningham, British High Commissioner in Palestine, broadcasting on his return to Jerusalem after a brief visit to London, said that there was clear evidence that some, if not all, of the terrorists, responsible for the bomb outrage came from Tel Aviv. Reuter’s correspondent in Jerusalem says that the 6th Airborne Division is carrying out the operations, which are on the same scale as the big round-up on June 29. Tel Aviv is under stricter control than ever before. The British Army has established roadblocks at the exits from the city. The Jewish police have been ordered to remain at their homes until sent for. Lieutenant-General Cunningham said: “I wish to make it clear that the military operations proceeding in the Tel Aviv area have, as theii' object, a search for terrorists, and are the direct result of the vile and horrible crime committed on July 22.

“It has been and is my earnest wish that when military action is forced on us we should interfere as little as possible with the normal life of the country. The remedy is plain to see. If violence is eschewed normal occupations will take no harm, and endeavours for the betterment of Palestine can continue in peace. Barbarous Crime. “I remind all the people of Palestine of the great and urgent need to find a solution '/or the Palestine problem. Discussions are to be held with both Arabs and Jews. Violence can only make the task longer and more difficult, if not impossible. “It must be evident to all rightminded Jews that mere protests are insufficient to wipe out the stains of this shameful and barbarous crime. No movement of a terrorist character would have a chance of survival against the wishes of the people from which it-springs. It lies with the Jewish people whether they will help or hinder the rooting out of this cancer, which, if it remains, can only recoil against them.” SYRIA NOT TO ATTEND CONFERENCE (Rec. 1 p.m.) DAMASCUS, July 20. The Syrian Prime Minister, Abdul-lah-Jadry, stated that Syria, in agreement with the other Arab Governments, intended to refuse the British invitation to the Palestine roundtable conference in London. “It is illogical,” he said, “that those possessing the right should meet on a footing of equality with those who aspire to deprive them of it.”