R.A.F. DROPS FOOD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22200, 10 December 1946, Page 5

R.A.F. DROPS FOOD

MAROONED lEWS WRECKED REFUGEES GREEK NAVY TO RESCUE (11.30 a.m.) LONDON. Dec. 9. The Royal Air Force planes returned to Jerusalem after dropping urgentlyneeded supplies to 800 Jewish refugees shipwrecked on the Island of Syrina, in the Aegean Sea, Flight Lieutenant Allan Ross, leader of the Halifaxes, which dropped five tons of supplies, told Reuters correspondent in Jerusalem: "We saw several hundred people huddled in a valley. They lit recognition fires and waved excitedly as we ran in at 250 ft. We dropped the containers in the middle of the valley.” Flight-Lieutenant Ross described Syrina as barren and treeless. 2} miles by one mile, with few houses. There was no sign of the ship. Flight-Lieutenant Ross said the planes flew through the worst flying weather he had known. The Jewish Agency spokesman expressed the appreciation of the Jewish population of Palestine for the help given to their compatriots by the British. Reuter’s correspondent in Athens reports that the Greek Navy dispatched two destroyers to aid the Jews marooned on Syrina Island and also a tank landing-ship carrying food and medical supplies. A Jewish hospital in Jerusalem provided medical supplies, but British servicemen gave comforts, etc., from their personal kit. Tribute to British Forces It is remarkable that British soldiers and policemen in Palestine do not sometimes run completely berserk, says a well-known American correspondent. Mr. Edward Beattie, of the British United Press in a tribute to their restraint and patience. Mr. Beattie says that British servicemen have seen horribly mutilated victims from jeeps blown up by mines containing rivets. They know that on every yard they cover in an army vehicle they may also be blown up. They are subjected to insults, called Fascist gangsters and “worse than Nazis” but .they seldom lose their control

Mr. Beattie adds: “It would be silly to deny that service in Palestine provokes anti-Semitism. It does, not for racial reasons but on the basis of hard experience. The people of Jerusalem often comment on the recent cartoon by David Low showing a British soldier being ambushed from a dark alley with the caption: “What? He’s not anti-Sem-itic. We shall soon alter that.”