ACCUSED JEWS QUOTE BIBLE

Northern Advocate, 26 June 1946, Page 5

ACCUSED JEWS QUOTE BIBLE

(Rec. 12.45.) JERUSALEM, June 25. A hushed military court, trying 31 young Jews allegedly members of Irgun Zvai Leumi, on a charge of carrying firearms and explosives, heard two of the accused reciting passages from the Old Testament in Hebrew in their defence, after which the president adjourned the court while the military prosecutor explained the legal procedure to the accused. The passages quoted were Deuteronomy, XI, 23-24, and Ezekiel. XI., 17-18. Among the accused was a girl, Deborah Kalfus, aged 21, who sat smiling beside her brother, Moshe. aged 19.

Before the trial began all the accused recited in Hebrew the first; verse of the Psalm “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate Him flee before Him.’' The men, who were aged 17 to 28, wore the uniform of the Jewish national military organisation.

Sten guns, grenades, hundreds of pounds of explosives and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were stacked in the court. They were the arms alleged to have been carried by the accused when they were arrested after they had been spotted by a plane. The court is heavily guarded and surrounded by barbed wire. MISSING OFFICERS British troops stopped vehicles entering and leaving Tel Aviv today and checked passengers on the seventh day of the search for the three kidnapped British officers, says Reuter's Jerusalem correspondent. Military and police admit they are without a clue as regards the officers' whereabouts.

It is officially stated that a vessel carrying over 1000 immigrants was intercepted by a British destroyer. It is being escorted to Haifa, where the passengers are expected to land tomorrow. CLEANING OWN STABLES Redisposition of British police forces is being carried out at Tel Aviv, which is designed to leave the Jewish police force to fight the city's increasing crime wave.

A British police officer stated that 30 British policemen were being withdrawn from Tel Aviv.

Detachments o; lhe Jewish resistance movement were '-sported to be standing-to tonight along the Palestine coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa in readiness for the expected arrival of the illegal immigrant ship.

The Jerusalem correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says the refugee ship which is now cn route to Haifa under British destroyer escort is the Beauharncis, which sailed from the Gulf of Genoa on June 19. SYSTEM REVEALED

A document containing a full description of the means by which the Haganah organises illegal immigration has just fallen into British hands. The document claims that the Haganah has been instrumental in bringing many thousands of Jews to Palestine. Its representatives operate throughout Europe, bring immigrants to the Mediterranean and provide vessels to transport them to Palestine. Speedboats and radio apparatus are used to facilitate their landing at isolated spots and dispersal among Jewish settlements. Refugee ships communicate with Haganah’s land stations on prearranged wave-lengths and receive orders where to land. Speed-boats dash ashore while Haganah troops guard the landing-points “from British interference.”