JEWISH AGENCY DECIDES TO END TERRORISM

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 September 1946, Page 5

JEWISH AGENCY DECIDES TO END TERRORISM

Organisations at Variance One Plans Intensified Attacks (Rec. 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, September 15. The Jewish Agency executive, at a secret session, decided to end the terrorist activities by Jews, says the Daily Telegraph’s Jerusalem correspondent. The decision has not been announced in Palestine and the agency will work through its illegal army, the Haganah. Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang will be the first advised that their activities must cease and, if these orders are not obeyed, terrorists may again be handed to the police by the Haganah as during the war, although the terrorists may now prove too powerful. The executive was still in session when a statement condemning the terrorists was issued. The Irgun Zvai Leumi announced the < complete rupture or relations with the Haganah in a dramatic broadcast over its underground radio. The speaker said the Irgun Zvai Leumi was now quite alone, but stressed that it was never so strong and a new era was beginning for Jewish resistance. While previously there had always been a short break between attacks, they would now continue uninterruptedly. The speaker indirectly implied the organisation’s responsibility for the Jaffa bank attacks by declaring that the Irgun Zvai Leumi had to procure money by all possible means owing to the'iack of funds. Government sources have confirmed that the former chief secretary for Palestine, Mr. Shaw arrived in London after a secret departure by plane on September 13. The Jewish Agency, in a statement, condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the recent Palestine outrages, which it describes as a form of gangsterism. “The outrages were the work of elements who do not seem to understand that their actions recoil on the heads of the Jewish community, which abominates them.” The statement deplores the toll of innocent Arabs’ lives, “particularly as every effort has been made by the Jews to prevent injury or suffering to people with whom we have no quarrel.”