DECISION ON HOLY LAND TRUCE WITHIN 36 HOURS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22658, 8 June 1948, Page 7

DECISION ON HOLY LAND TRUCE WITHIN 36 HOURS

:(11.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 7. The United Nations’ Mediator, Count Bernadotte, announced when he arrived in Cairo from Amman H at the next 24 to 36 hours should see a decision one way or the other on the Palestine truce. Both the Associated Press and Reuter's correspondents in Amman report they reliably learned that the date for the Palestine truce has been fixed for June 10.

Reuter’s correspondent says that a postponement from .June 7, which had been earlier decided upon, is to enable Count Bernadotte to obtain a clarification of some of the conditions without which it is unlikely the Arabs would agree to the truce.

The Associated Press correspondent says that these conditions apply to immigration and th e opening of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. A communique issued by the Lebanese Defence Ministry says that Lebanese and Syrian forces occupied the settlement of Malkiyeh, an important Haganah stronghold south of the Lebanese border.

A Syrian communique claims the destruction of Jewish fortifications north and south of the Sea of Gallilee with widespread air activity.

The Iraqi claims of killing 600 Jews in the battle for Jenin are refuted in a Jewish communique which says that since the beginning of the Jenin fighting Jewish losses numbered “less than 40.”

The communique says that Israeli artillery, for the third successive day, engaged the spearhead of the Egyptian invasion column 20 miles south of Tel Aviv and pressed home attacks against the Egyptians in the Esdud area In Cairo, the Arab League announced that a substantial number of SaudiArabian troops, well equipped with tanks, armoured cars, heavy artillery and light weapons were now operating with the Egyptian Army in Palestine. The Saudi-Arabian Army has a limited number of light tanks which were obtained from the British some time agoThe Associated Press correspondent in Tel Aviv, who recently arrived from Cairo, said it is hard for the newcomer to realise that Tel Aviv is the headquarters of a people at war. There is no sense of disaster in the air. Tel Aviv's seafront looks like Brighton beach. The streets are filled with Sabbath promenaders. Hundreds watched from the beach yesterday as four small Egyptian ships exchanged shots with a Jewish corvette a few miles offshore. The Egyptian ships withdrew and then the crowds sauntered idly back to the pavement and cafes.

A Syrian communique says that Syrian forces today crossed the Jordan and encircled Mishmar Hayarden about eight miles north of the Sea of Gallilee. Enemy attempts to raise the siege were defeated.

LEFT-WING SOCIALISTS SUPPORT JEWS [(11.45 am.) WARSAW. June 7. A secret “Socinforin” meeting at Warsaw of left-wing Socialists from France, Italy, Finland, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which Mr. K. Zilliacus, the British Labour M.P., attended at the week-end, decided to support the Jewish cause in Palestine.