BRITISH JEWS SECRETLY SENT TO HOLY LAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22669, 21 June 1948, Page 5

BRITISH JEWS SECRETLY SENT TO HOLY LAND

(10 a.m.) LONDON, June 20. The British Foreign Office is preparing to act against a secret organisation with headquarters in London which, according to a newspaper report, is recruiting Jewish fighting men in Britain and sending them to Palestine by an underground route. The Foreign Office spokesman broadly confirmed the report which said that British Jews were being sent to France where agents met them, gave them false identity papers, passed them through agents in the French provinces to a battle school. Several men who were “caught up’’ in the organisation had second thoughts and applied to the British consulate in France for repatriation.

Informed sources said that the last British troops in Palestine would sail within 10 days of the actual date, says the Associated Press correspondent in Haifa. The date of the final withdrawal is being kept a close military secret because it is feared that Jewish extremist elements might take a “farewell crack” at the British troops when their strength was at the lowest. U.N. SECURITY GUARDS AND SHIPS ON WAY (10 a.m.) NEW YORK, June 20. Forty-nine security guards left by air on Saturday night to assist Count Bernadotte in Palestine. The men are clad in grey United Nations’ uniforms. Three United States destroyers and one French corvette are being assigned to Count Bernadotte for use as coastal patrol vessels in supervising the truce.

It means that Count Bernadotte, at least for the present, will have a fourvessel patrol force instead of six vessels he originally contemplated. Theree American destroyers will be assigned immediately from the forces in the Mediterranean on the following conditions stipulated by the United States Government:

1. The vessels must be used only to transport persons and materials connected with the truce or for observation and reporting duties. 2. The vessels are not authorised to use force or stop or board other ships.

25 PERSONS KILLED IN CAIRO OUTRAGE (11 a.m.) CAIRO, June 20. A heavy explosion in the Jewish quarter of Cairo early today demolished eight houses, killed 25 persons and injured 54, The explosion is believed to have been caused by two bombs. The police cordoned off the area. Riots broke out in the Jewish sections of the city soon after the explosion. The rioters burned a tram and a private car.