Britain May Speed Up Withdrawal From Palestine

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 March 1948, Page 5

Britain May Speed Up Withdrawal From Palestine

(Rec. 1 p.m.) JERUSALEM, M'arch 14.

The commander of the British land forces in the Middle East, General Sir John Crocker, conferred at the weekend with the High Commissioner, General Sir Alan Cunningham, with the object, it is believed of completing the British evacuation of Palestine before the target date of August 1.

It is thought that the widespread fighting, which is feared after the termination of the British mandate on May 15, may hamper the later stages of evacuation, unless it is speeded up. Ten Arabs and six Jews were killed in street fighting today in the village of Valuj, north-east of Gaza. Six Jews were killed in a skirmish in the Negeb area, after a Jewish convoy broke through an Arab road-block. Jewish witnesses failed to identify three absentee British police constables at an identity parade at the Jerusalem police headquarters as being connected with the Ben-Yehuda street bombing on February 22. British police arrested tJ.e three constables in a missing armoured car during an Arab-Jewish clash on March 10.

The police reported that 14 armoured vehicles, carrying Haganah men to the Jewish colony of Gath, fought actions against Arabs in villages in the Gaza area. The convoy blew up the town hall and 10 houses in the village of Faluja, where street fighting ensued.

The convoy on the return journey forced its way past road-blocks, while Arabs fired from roof-tops and windows. “The Haganah claims to have killed 15 Arabs. Seven Jews were killed and six wounded.