ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 5

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

6,000 JEWS ON SHIPS AT HAIFA THE TEL AVIV COMB-OUT LONDON, August 4. “Six thousand illegal Jewish immigrants are aboard ships lying:in Haifa harbour,” says the Jerusalem correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. “There are 1200 9 ’people in the Athlit clearance camp awaiting release. “It is rumoured in Jerusalem that three further ships have left Mediterranean ports for Palestine. “The illegal immigration is organised by the Haganah to provide itself r with reerdits. A vast majority of the immigrants are young, healthy, former partisans from Greece, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, and Rumania, and with them is a sprinkling of children, and old people serving as camouflage. “Illegal immigrants have been arriving in Haifa since May, and a total of 11,000 are there. Eleven confiscated Jewish ships are lying in Haifa harbour.

“The Jews’ illegal immigration policy can have no other object than to embarrass the Palestine administration with such numbers that the quota system wlil have to be abandoned.”

102,000 Persons Questioned Reuter’s Jerusalem- correspondent sasy that 740 men and 22 women were detained during the four-day comb-ing-out in Tel Avis after 102,000 had been questioned. One thousand illegal Jewish refugees landed yesterday and to-day at Haifa from ships which arrived earlier in the week. Another 2250 remain on their ships awaiting a disembarkation decision. The Palestine Government, as part of its security measures, has ordered the occupants of a large general building and the Anglo-Palestine Bank, both of which are near the Post Office and police headquarters, to evacuate. Two houses near MajorGeneral Sir Evelyn Barker’s residence are to be requisitioned, and another' building in the centre of the city is to be evacuated. Haganah Documents Documents plainly discarded in haste were discovered in the search of Tel Aviv, including a note in the hand-writing of Moshe Sneh, head of the Haganah and a member of the Jewish Agency Executive. This is revealed in a Colonial Office statement. J . The note is of little intrinsic value, but the" other documents included two Haganah orders, one dated Subsequently to the blowing up of the King David Hotel on July 22. It was to be issued by Palmach, the Haganah Striking Force. , After describing the hotel explosion as the work of criminals, the order went on: “You must delay until further notice the fulfilment of the instruction concerning armed opposition to the searches. Units picked to oner armed opposition are now encamped in the open and will return to the settlement.” The second order, dated July 2d, declared that the British Government had begun a military attack against Jews and their achievements, and called on the Haganah to stand fast. BRITISH TANKER BLOWS UP IN HAIFA

LONDON, August 2

A British tanker, the Empire Cross, blew up in Haifa harbour late tonight, with heavy casualties. ine ship, after a terrific explosion and a fire which blazed furiously for two minutes, capsized. She was owned by the Shell Company and had arrived from Suez yesterday to discharge aviation spirit. Nine British officers, 12 Lascar seamen, and four local Arab labourers are missing. Thirty-five of the ciew, who were saved, are receiving hospital treatment. The ship’s captain was, one or those blown to safety.

THE POPE CONDEMNS VIOLENCE

LONDON, August 4

“The Pope in a private audience with the Arab delegation condemned acts of violence in Palestine,” says Reuter’s Rome correspondent. Mr Joseph Sahyoun, one of the Christian Arabs’ delegation, said: “The Pope assured us he was willing to use all the means in his power to see that justice and peace prevail m Palestine.” DEATH ROIT IN HOTEL OUTRAGE 91 (Rec. 11 a.m.) JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 It is officially announced that ail the bodies have been recovered from the ruins of the King David Hotel. The rubble has been cleared and all the missing accounted for. The total of killed was 91. Fortyfive of the injured are still in hospital. EXPLOSION NOT ATTRIBUTED TO SABOTAGE (Rec. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 4. An inquiry into the cause ol the explosion in Haifa aboard the tanker Empress Cross led to the impression that sabotage was not the cause, says The Times Jerusalem correspondent. One theory is that a destroyer in Haifa Bay lost a small depth charge, which ignited benzine floating near the ship.