LORD MOYNE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25046, 9 November 1944, Page 5

LORD MOYNE

VICTIM OF ASSASSINS I. TRIBUTE BY CHURCHILL

PALESTINE LOSES FRIEND (Reed. D.35 p.m.) LONDON, Not. _ 7 The funeral of Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, who was assassinated in Cairo yesterday, will take place tomorrow. King Farouk visited the military hospital last night to inquire about Lord Moyne's condition, says the British official wireless. Lord Moyne was unconscious all the time after the attack, except for a few moments when the blood transfusion was given. Lord- Moyne's residence was never guarded. Disliking ostentation, he asked that the guard be removed. The Egyptian Government had provided a police car escort, but last week Lord Moyne asked them to stop it. Murder Carefully Planned The Cairo correspondent of the Exchange . Telegraph says the assassins of Lord Moyne had been in Egypt for over a week and had planned the murder with the utmost care. The two men hired bicycles from a shop in Cairo 011 October 27 and .November L and again yesterday. They kept watch on Lord Moyne's house tor some days. The men were standing inside the garden when Lord Moyne drove in yesterday with a woman secretary and an aide, the correspondent adds. As the driver alighted to open the door for Lord Moyne the men opened fire with pistols. The driver was killed instantly and Lord Moyne fell wounded. Neither the secretary nor the aide was injured. The aide, Captain Hughes-Onslow, pursued the men on foot. An Egyptian policeman showed a police motor-cyclist the direction the men had taken. The motor-cyclist eventually caught up with one man and seized him. Handing him over to a traffic policeman, he pursued the second man, and with the help of the crowd succeeded in arresting him. The men were taken to the police station and searched. Some papers were found on them. Silence of Assassins The assassins, when questioned in Hebrew, replied: "We are saying nothing. We are waiting for the Court." It is established that the men are Jews, but it is not known if they came from Palestine. Colonel Giles and other Palestine police officials have arrived in Cairo ,to take part in the investigations. The assassins are to be tried by Egyptian Courts. The Prime Minister. Mr Churchill, addressing the House of Commons, paid an eloquent tribute to the public services and personal character of Lord Moyne. "Parliament and the nation have suffered a very heavy loss,". Mr Churchill said. "We have yet received 110 official information which fixes the authorship of the crime or gives us a clue to the motive. The murderers themselves narrowly escaped lynching at the hands of Egyptian subjects. Very searching inquiries will be_ made .into the origin and the association of these strangers to Egypt."

Able Minister Lost Referring to Lord Moyne's work in the Middle East, Mr Churchill said: "The despatches and telegrams he wrote were models of clarity and vigour. I was deeply impressed by the expansion of his mind under the stress of responsibility and events. Certainly I can testify, so can the Foreign Secretary, to the marked impoverishment of. our affairs in this theatre resulting from his removal, and the very great difficulty there will be in filling the gap. "in particular Lord Moyne had devoted himself this year to the solution of the Palestinian problem. I can assure the House that the Jews in Palestine have lost a well-informed friend." Lord Strabolgi (Labour), speaking in the House of Lords, after Mr Churchill's reference in the House of Commons to Lord Moyne, said: "I want to know what is underlying the trouble which causes these acts of terrorism in Palestine as well as in Egypt. An independent and thorough investigation should' be held immediately. I think it is far more probable that Lord Moyne was murdered by Nazi agents." Zionist Organisation Shocked Mr Arthur Greenwood and Sir Percy Harfis the respective leaders of the Labour and Liberal parties, associated themselves with the Prime Minister's tribute, as also did other members. A statement issued in London by the New Zionist Organisation says the movement throughout the world is profoundly shocked by the murder of Lord Moyne. Tt condemns this act of terrorism, which is said to have been committed by Jews. The organisation declares that it is imperative that an immediate inquiry should be ordered into the reason of the outbreak of terrorism in Palestine and into its cause. FRENCH ASSEMBLY FIRST MEETING HELD ' PARIS, Nov. 7 The first meeting of the enlarged French Consultative Assembly was held today in Luxembourg Palace, Paris, the pre-war home of the Senate, with the first women representatives ever elected to a French Assembly. They consist of six women representatives of the Resistance Movement of France and of the resistance movement abroad. Today's sitting was merely formal. The election of officials will be held tomorrow. M. Paul Cuttoli, Senator for Constantine, in Algeria, acting as president, paid a tribute to the Allied democracies, specially naming Mr Churchill, President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin, which brought prolonged applause. He demanded for the Assembly _ free discussion, the right to criticise freely and the abolition of trusts. GERMAN CITIES LIGHTED TRANSPORT OF SUPPLIES LONDON, Nov. 7 Apparently the German frontier cities have given up the blackout as a bad job, says Renter's correspondent at American Third Army Headquarters. Pilots, flying oyer Strasburg last night, reported that lights in streets and build}ings were blazing as they did a few weeks ago at Cologne and Duisberg before the R.A.F. "saturated" them. A Third Army interviewed by the correspondent, said: "The Germans are using lights to speed up their supplies for the front. The enemy knows that the Allies are able to raid the frontier areas at will and has probably decided that the advantages of using lights outweigh the disadvantages to work and movement imposed by the security of a blackout." INSULTS TO BRITAIN BROADCASTER SENTENCED LONDON, Nov. 7 Huraut Devibray, who broadcast over Paris and Calais radios during the German occupation, was sentenced in the Paris Assize Court to ten years hard labour. His broadcasts from Calais, which were primarily intended for American listeners, contained insults to Britain. FAST ATLANTIC FLIGHT (Eecd. 0 30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 7 Captain C. B. Lothian, in a Royal Air Force Lancaster bomber, set up a new. transatlantic record by ilying from Montreal to Britain on Monday iij lOh 13m, 111 lm less than the previous record, set up last January. The plane carried mail for the Canadian j forces and priority, good% hut no ■ • jj ■ '