PALESTINE UNREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25318, 27 September 1945, Page 5

PALESTINE UNREST

BRITISH REINFORCED ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICT LONDON. Sept. 25 The Arab-Jewish conflict has reached a point where it has been thought necessary to despatch British reinforcements to Palestine, says the Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent. Part of these forces have been diverted from Germany. Viscount Gort, Commissioner in Palestine and Transjordania, lias arrived at Jerusalem by air after a visit of three months to Britain for medical treatment and official consultations.

A special correspondent of the Times, reviewing the Palestine problem, estimates the strength of the Hebrew underground organisation, the ilagana, at from 50,000 to 75,000 men, with firstrate equipment, including automatic weapons and mortars from their own secret factories, and a motorjsed field force capable of throwing in a taskforce of several thousand men at a few hours' notice to any threatened point in Palestine.

There are three illegal Jewish semimilitary organisations in Palestine, the Hagana, or "Jewish Defence Force," the National Military Organisation jn tlie Land of Israel, and the "Stern Group," sometimes known as the "Fighters of Freedom for Israel." The, latter, the smallest and newest group, was formed in 1940 by Abraham Stern and was in touch with the Axis.

INVADING , BRITAIN GERMAN PLAN FOUND ATTACK THAT NEVER CAME LONDON. Sept. Q5 Newly-discovered documents in Berlin show that the Germans in the autumn of 1940 were preparing to strike against Southern and South-eastern England with 22 divisions and with 17 divisions in reserve, says Renter's Berlin correspondent. Although no one is prepared to say for certain that the documents contain the exact and final operational order, the following appears to have been the general plan:— Two army groups, A and B, were to carry out the invasion. Group A, made up of the Sixteenth and Ninth Armies, was to land between Margate and Hastings and between Brighton and Portsmouth, supported by airborne landings between Folkestone and Hastings and around Brighton. Group B was to follow up with landings in Weymouth Bay.

The landing forces of the two army groups would have consisted'of' 11 infantry, two mountain, one S.S., six armoured and two motorised divisions. The Germans even had a six-barrelled mortar ready for the invasion. The plan called for Group A to link up from the two beachheads, with the first main objective a line running north-east from Portsmouth to Aldershot, thence through Leatherhcad and Caterham north-east to Tilbury. The enemy planned to smash the British and Canadian forces in the hedgerow country of Kent, Sussex and Surrey, and then to drive on to the second objective, a line between Colchester and Bristol, cutting off London. Strong mobile forces would then have broken through and occupied important coastal towns and industrial areas in the Midlands. The correspondent says that if the Germans had invaded under this general plan they would have employed a land force of about the same strength as the Allies used in Normandy. General A. G. L. McXaughton, Commander of the Canadian First Army, at the time commanded the south-eastern anti-invasion forces, which were extremely thin throughout the area.

ARGENTINE REVOLT

MILITARY COUP CRUSHED BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 25 The Argentine Government lias announced that the military revolt at Cordoba, 400 miles north-west of Buenos Aires, which was led by General Arturo Rnwson and General Osvaldo Martin, has been' crushed and the two leaders placed in gaol. The Vice-President, Colonel Peron, the "strong man" of the Argentine regime, said General Rawson and General Martin attempted to win over commanders and men to their cause. They are at present being held incommunicado.

General Rawson was President of Argentina for '2B hours in 1943, when he led the army revolt which ousted President Castillo.

BELGIANS IN LISBON Sept. 25 The Prime Minister of Belgium, M. A. van Acker, and members of the Belgian Cabinet, have arrived in Lisbon. The Associated Press correspondent in Lisbon says they are reported to have visited the Belgian Pegent, Prince Charles, shortly after their arrival. Later reports say that King Leopold is expected in Lisbon soon.

NEW AIR SERVICE fßpcd. 6.10 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2fi A trunk air service between South Africa and the United Kingdom will start in the middle o?_ November. There trill be an initial service of one aircraft a week each way, with stops at Nairobi, Khartoum, .Cairo and Malta.