CEASE FIRE PALESTINE TRUCE

Grey River Argus, 10 May 1948, Page 5

CEASE FIRE PALESTINE TRUCE

JEWS' TEfflß FOR PERMANENT TRUCE

(Ree. 10 pan.) LONDON, May 9. Truce negotiations for permanent peace in the Holy Land, following the cease fire, will begin today. A spokesman said the Jewish Agency’s terms for a permanent truce in Jerusalem were free access from Tel Aviv to the Wailing Wall in Old Jerusalem, and the deportation of all foreign Arabs from Jerusalem.

He accused the British, in arranging the cease fire, of trying to save the Arabs “from a too severe beating,” and added that the cease fire would be for “a very short period.”.

Haganah did not expect it to be used for the consolidation of the Arab forces.

The spokesman said that the truce talks at Jericho were •’‘purely a domestic affair between the British and Arab League”, with the Jews playing a secondary role. i he talks bore “all the marks of Britain’s traditional Arab diplomacy”. The United States, faced with the prospect of a complete breakdown of, communications between Palestine and America, after Britain lays down the mandate on May 15, to-day arranged to station a Navy signals detachment in its Consulate in Jerusalem. The move is interpreted in official circles at Washington as meaning that United States agencies must now be prepared for the possibility that the United Nations will have failed to achieve orderly conditions in Jerusalem when the British leave. JERUSALEM'S MAYOR Meanwhile, no candidate has been chosen for special municipal commissioner of Jerusalem. Britain has drawn up a short list, but if still has to be submitted to the Jews and Arabs. One American candidate asked to be withdrawn from the list because he suffered from high blood pressure. ARABS FROM ITALY ROME, May 7. The police in Genoa have uncovered an organisation which has beed shipping arms to Jewish organisations in Palestine. Reliable Italian sources say that

Jews in Italy are preparing ships and reinforcements, arms and munitions for Palestine, following the British withdrawal on May 15. Reports also state that Jews are congregating at Balkan ports, mostly in Yugoslavia

CEASE FIRE STARTED IN JERUSALEM

British Intercession (Rec. 9.5). LONDON, May 8. All firing ceased in Jerusalem to-day at noon as the result of the cease fire which the High Commissioner (Lieutenant-Gen-eral Sir Alan Cunningham) and the Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government (Sir Henry Gurney) negotiated. The Arabs offered to cease fire throughout. Jerusalem at noon, provided the Jews did likewise. The Haaanah soon after the announcement issued the cease fire order for all Jerusalem. As the Palestine Government truce communiciue was being distributed. Arabs at the Jaffa Gate exchanged gunfire with Jews in the Yemen 'Moshe sector. Mortars and machine-guns went into action. British troops intervened with sixpounder gunfire to silence both sides, using parachute flares to pierce the smokescreen with which the Jews had covered their area.

BRITISH DEPARTURE In Haifa to-dav. General H. Stockwell General Officer Commanding m

Northern Palestine, told Jewish officials that the British troops would leave Palestine much more quickly than was originally scheduled. Jewish Agency officials expressed the belief that the evacuation might be completed by early July instead of August 1. The troopship Georgia lias arrived at i-laifa. to take off several thousand British troops and several hundred British police. Two more British warships to-day anchored in Jaffa harbour, and the third is cruising off the coast. The Tel Aviv correspondent of the British United Press recalls that the cruiser Newcastle this week arrived at Jaffa and joined two destroyers covering the Manshieh quarter, which is Jaffa's most disturbed area.

(Rec. 10.30). SYDNEY, May 9. The security police are searching for a man who has been posing in Sydney as the recruiting officer for the Arab Legion. He is reported to have taken deposits from intending recruits as a pledge of good faith that the men would honour their agreement to go overseas. The security officers say that there are no genuine recruiting officers for either Jews e>r Arabs in Australia. They believe that the agents would not travel 7000 miles for recruits when there were many English and German ex-servicemen much nearer home. In Melbourne, John Brass, the Haganah representative in Australia, said that hg was visiting the Commonwealth on a mission about which there was nothing fugitive. He was out to collect £250,000 for Jewish relief funds. Of this. £70,000 had already been raised in three weeks. A Sydney newspaper supports the appeal. Australians’ Aid Sought By The Combatants SYDNEY, May 3. The Sydney Sunday Sun has published an interview with a former Australian Army sergeant, who has been working as a labourer since his discharge, who claims to be one of 500 Australian former servicemen enlisted in Sydney for the Arab forces in the Middle East. He said he was approached by a Sydney barrister who explained that he had been commissioned to seek good men who would work for a foreign country, training soldiers for battle. Later he was told that he would be attached to the Arab Legion under Glubb Pasha, as a sergeant instructor. In a Sydney suburb he met two middle-aged men, one of whom was English and the other "said he was English but sounded more like a Yank”. He signed an attestation form and was paid a month’s pay in advance. This man expects to leave shortly in an English ship which will take him as far as Port Said or Alexandria. Jewish Haganah agents are reported to have approached import and export agents to try to obtain surplus military goods. They say that they have plenty of money and are ordering through a central agency in New York. Among the traders approached is the Milne Bay ■ Trading Company, which now owns the former American Army camp at Milne Bay, New Guinea, valued at £2,000,000. The Australian Legion of Ex-Ser-vicemen has asked the Australian Government not to allow Australians to'be used as mercenaries in Palestine. The council of the Legion lias discussed reports that both Arabs and Jews are negotiating in the Australian capital cities for former Australian officers and non-commissioned officers to train troops for fighting in Palestine.