CLASH ON SHIP

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1946, Page 5

CLASH ON SHIP

Naval Boarding Party Attacked JEWISH VESSEL CAUGHT (Recd. 1 p.m.) JERUSALEM, September 22. It is officially stated that one Jewish illegal immigrant was killed and several other immigrants and British ratings slightly injured when Jews aboard the ship Palmach resisted a boarding party. Naval men used five tear-gas grenades to quell “very strong resistance.” The Palmach is at present lying off Haifa. Transhipment to a Liberty ship for transfer to Cyprus is expected to begin to-morrow. A communique stated that the Palmach’s 800 or 900 immigrants were violently hostile when a naval party went aboard under a rain of missiles. One shot fired into the air failed to quell the riot. The Palmach was hailed by His Majesty’s ship Rowena and warned that if there was further resistance tear-gas would be used.

Searchers of the Palmach found 18 sticks of T.N.T. concealed in bars of soap, and also home-made bomb and fuses. A Jew aboard the Palmach was killed when a rating fired a rifle after passengers using crowbars and hatchets had rushed the boarding party. Five tear-gas grenades were used before the Palmach was undei control. Many aged persons among the several hundred passengers were in an exhausted condition from the rigours of the voyage. Eight of the sick were taken to hospital. “The Voice of Israel” radio, after an announcement that one Jew was killed and several injured, alleged that the ratings boarding the Palmach used brutal methods. It added that hundreds more were coming. Immigration would be increased and never subdued. . z It is officially stated that terrorists ambushed a military lorry on the Haifa-Athlit road. One British officer was sent to hospital. Reuter’s Tel Aviv correspondent reports that 400 vehicles were stopped and 1000 persons questoned when British troops held a sudden road check. A number of Jews were detained for further questioning. The Irgun Zvai Leumi has brought into action a secret radio additional to the Haganah’s “Voice of Israel, says the Associated Press Jerusalem correspondent. The n^ w la+L°’I a +L°’ “Fighting Zion,” declared that the Haifa railway station was attacked because it is a link in important British communications between Palestine and Egypt.