Terrorists Claim To Have Executed Two British Soldiers

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1947, Page 7

Terrorists Claim To Have Executed Two British Soldiers

(Recd. 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, July 30. The Irgun Zvai Leumi today repeated its claims that it had hanged two British sergeants. It added: “The appeals reached us too late. In the House of Commons, today the Colonial Secretary, Mr Creech Hones, said he was unable to give any official information about the fate of the kidnapped British sergeants in Palestine, “though a nows agency had issued certain statements.” British police headquarters in Jerusalem announced that a combined police and military comb-out of the country around Nathanya had failed to find any trace of the sergeants. Hundreds of troops rushed to Forest Sharon failed to find the bodies of the two sergeants. The officer commanding the search told the British United Press correspondent: ‘ ‘ This looks like another hoax, although the poor boys may well be dead.”

The correspondent adds that the] Irgun may have started a cruel war j 1 of nerves with its claim that the miss- i ing sergeants have been hanged. I Indicative of the confusion caused i by the Irgun announcement of the ; execution and later failure to discover the bodies is the fact that the Jewish Agency issued, and then, withdrew, a statement expressing; sympathy with the relatives and horror at “the murderous act.” | The Irgun announcement of the, execution stated: “The two British 1 spies, Martyn and Paice, were found guilty of unlawful entry into Pales-, tine and membership of the British ] terrorist organisation, called the] British Occupation Army, responsible for the murder and suppression of . Jews.” | “ A Legal Action The Irgun announcement claimed ; that the execution was not retalia-' tion for the execution of the three] 1 Irgun terrorists, but “merely a nor- i mal legal action,” which the Irgun proposed to take against the Occupation Army. The Irgun also declared 1 that the request of Paice’s father for clemency for his son should have been directed not to the Irgun but

“those who refused clemency to the only sister of Weiss (one of the hanged terrorists). We cannot do anything about it.” The Irgun announcement further said the sergeants, as members of the British Army, were also accused of the murder of Jewish women and children and the illegal possession of arms. Horror Expressed A Jewish Agency spokesman in London, when told of the reported execution of the sergeans, said: “I can only hope it may not be true. If it is true, we are absolutely horrified and condemn it outright.” ! The Associated Press Jerusalem correspondent says an official inquiry has begun into the suspension of Deputy Superintendent Charlton, chief of the Acre Prison, after 25 years in the Palestine Government s service. The assistant superintendent, Andrew Clowe, was appointed in Charlton’s place and supervised the hangings of the three Irgun terrorists. i A road mine blew up a military lorry at Hederah today, killing two British soldiers and wounding two others.