CAIRO MURDER

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25047, 10 November 1944, Page 5

CAIRO MURDER

ASSASSINS CONFESS SENT FROM PALESTINE TEltlfOlilST OIftiANISATJON (Ileal. 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. !) The assassins of Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, have confessed, according to a Cairo message quoted by the British ollicial wireless. They were, sent from Palestine to Egypt by the ''Freedom of Israel" Movement, otherwise known as the Stern Gang, to murder Lord Moyne. They are said to have con Jessed that they killed Lord Moyne because, as head of the political department of the .British Government in the Middle Last, he was carrying out a policy contrary to the Jewish national interest. The identity of the prisoners is still not established. The names they gave were Mosche Cohen Israel and Charles Swilzmann. The confession was made to a Palestine police official. The Associated Press correspondent in Cairo says the men confessed after ;56 hours ol almost ceaseless questioning. OtJier Terrorists Believed At Large Cairo police believe there are several other Jewish terrorists at large in Egypt with a similar mission to that of Lord Moyne's assassins. The Egyptian police are still silent 011 the rest of the inquiry, which may throw some light on any plans the assassins may have had for killing other persons, says a correspondent in Egypt. He adds that it is clear now that the Stern Gang has ceased to limit its activities to Palestine, but is carrying; out terrorism elsewhere in the Middle East. The Stern Gang, named after its founder, Abraham Stern, aims at the immediate establishment by violence of a Jewish State, including all Palestine. The gang's activities reached a climax in January, 19-12, with the cold-blooded murder of three police officers and the wounding of four others. A round-up of its members followed, and Stern himself. with two other leading terrorists, were shot dead while endeavouring to escape. Recrudescence of Terrorism. In October, 1943. some 20 members of the gang broke out of their confinement in Palestine and the gang's activities were resumed. In London it is recalled that the Colonial Secretary, Mr Oliver Stanley, told the House of Commons on October 11 that there had been a recrudescence of Jewish terrorist activities in Palestine. These were carried out by the lrgun Zvai Leumi. which was the military organisation of the "New Zionist Organisation." Mr Stanley added that these attacks, the object of which was to further political aims, would seriously impede the war effort of the United Nations and could do nothing but harm to the Jewish cause. They were the work of a relatively small body of extremists and were condemned by the responsible leaders of Jewry in Palestine and throughout the world. "I am sure the whole House will join me in condemning these outrages." he concluded, "and in expressing sympathy with the victims in this murderous campaign,". Duties of Palestine Populace In the House of Lords, Viscount Samuel expressed the distress he felt at the report that the murderers came from the Jewish population of Palestine. If it should be so, he added, he was sure the population would extirpate from their midst this group of criminals. The chairman of the Parliamentary Palestine Committee. Mr V. S. Hammersley, made the following statement yesterday afternoon: "No more injurious blow against the Jewish national interest could have been struck than bv the cowardly assassination of Lord Moyne. Lord Moyne's assailants, selfconfessed members of the Stern Gang, are two of a small number of Jewish terrorists who for some time past have dominated the political scene in Palestine. "The Jewish population of. Palestine is now some 500,000," he continued, "and they should be sufficiently strong and cohesive to stamp out this viper of terrorism whose ugly manifestations have done much to turn British public opinion against legitimate Jewish aspirations. I must urge on the Jews in Palestine ihe vital necessity of supporting actively the forces of order and of purging all dangerous extremists from their midst. Terrorism will deflect the course of justice and may destroy the cause which the well-wishers of the .Tews have deeply at heart." Lord Moyne was given a military funeral in Cairo yesterday. His body will he embalmed and carried by air to England.