Martial Law Believed Imminent In Palestine

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 August 1947, Page 7

Martial Law Believed Imminent In Palestine

(Recd. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 31. The Haganah has accused the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang of planning further kidnappings and killings of British forces in Palestine says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. The Haganah has appealed to the entire Jewish community to report immediately to the Jewish “Security Organisation’’ any information about Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang activities. Troops are now putting up barricades at all the entrances to Nathanya while a large number of soldiers are standing by in the coastal plain. Doctors who examined the bodies of the murdered sergeants said they had been garrotted—slowly strangled to death by the ropes with which they were hanged.

The sergeants will be buried with full military honours tomorrow morning at the British cemetery at Remlah, near Lydda. The Jewish Agency in London said the terrorists had murdered the sergeants in defiance of the feeling of the whole Jewish community. Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent said that the Jewish Agency coupled its condemnation of the terrorists’ hanging of the sergeants with an appeal to the British authorities not to thrust Palestine into “additional suffering and misery” by the imposition of martial law. Palestine Shocked The correspondent adds that reports from London indicate that the imposition of martial law is imminent. The Times Jerusalem correspondent says,the latest savagery by the terrorists has shocked Palestine more than any spilling of blood since the attack on the King David Hotel. Jews everywhere, especially in Na.thanya and Tel Aviv, are convinced that the heavy hand of the Government will fall on them. The Government has made a formal announcement of its powers to demolish buildings, and, unless the conditions inside the Jewish community alter, other steps of a kind which alone can really stop terrorism may be taken. The Times correspondent adds that no unauthorised retaliation will be allowed, though the feelings of the British troops and police are perhaps better not described. A Jewish source at Tel Aviv declared that British troops tonight beat up a number of Jewish civilians .in Mograbi square, Tel Aviv. The same source added that two Je.ws were taken to hospital. Picture of Hangings Mr Issa Badak, Christian Arab Mayor of Bethlehem, has ordered all bells to toll a requiem tonight for the murdered sergeants as a “token of the feelings of the whole community, which is horrified at the sacrifices of these two young men.” The Daily Express, under the caption, “A picture that will shock the world,” publishes a radioed picture of the sergeants hanging from the trees with their hands tied behind

their backs and heads covered with pieces of shirt. The picture was taken before the booby trap exploded. Injured by Mines Reuters correspondent in Jerusalem says that a number of British troops were injured when mines laid round the grove containing the bodies of the two sergeants exploded. The Associated Press correspondent reports that when the first body was cut down a booby-trap exploded, blowing pieces of the bodies df the two sergeants over a wide area. One British soldier was seriously injured. Near the tree on which the sergeants were hanged were copies of the “charges” of which Irgun Zvai, Leumi had found them guilty. The discovery of the bodies followed a message which Oved Ben Ami, Mayor of the coastal town of Nathanya, told the police he had received from Irgun Zvai Leumi last night. This said: “You will find the bodies of Sergeans Paice and Martin tomorrow in the area which paratroops combed today.” This referred to the wooded coastal plain southeast of Nathanya—the area where the bodies were found. The Irgun Zvai Leumi message added that the sergeants were executed for, among other things, “spying on Jews while wearing civilian clothing.” 1 Jews Panic-stricken The British United Press Jerusalem correspondent says that many Nathanya Jews, panic-stricken at the thought of possible martial law. have begun leaving, many on foot. Troops are on the move throughout the area. The hanged sergeants, whose bodies the terrorists used as bait for their booby-traps, were found in one of several Government forestry reserves in the plains of Sharcn, on the outskirts of Nathanya. They had been blindfolded with their own shirts. .Irgun statements, detailing the sergeants’ “crimes,” were pinned to their clothing. The statements included rejection of the pleas for clemency which the Irgun had received from Paice’s father. The Associated Press correspondent says the trip mechanism of the booby-trap was apparently attached

to the arm of one body. The explosion uprooted several trees. Widowed Mother Breaks Down Mrs F. R. Martin, aged 49, of Coventry, widowed mother of Sergeant Clifford James Martin, one of the hanged sergeants, has broken down under the tragedy and is in a serious condition. Her son-in-law told Reuter: “We feel the Government should have delayed the execution of the terrorists until our boys were safe.” Mr Herbert Morrison said in the House of Commons that it was hoped the House would adjourn on August 8 for the summer recess and resume on October 2*2. Mr Eden ' asked if Mr Morrison would arrange for a discussion on Palestine before the adjournment, because of the recent developments there. Mr Morrison said there could be talks through the usual channels,” but my instinctive reaction is that I am not sure that a debate would be useful.” Mr Eden vigorously said it would be absolutely unacceptable that the House should adjourn without a discussion on this matter. They would have to find some means for debate, even if it meant sitting on Saturday or some other day. • The matter was then'dropped,