ARAB ALLEGATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23692, 27 December 1938, Page 9

ARAB ALLEGATION

ATROCITIES BY TROOPS NAZI PRESS FEATURES STORY NO SEMBLANCE OF TRUTH (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 23. The Berlin correspondent of The Times says that the German press is giving prominence to a telegram from the " Palestine Arab Committee." sent from London and issued by the Official German News Agency, alleging " incredible brutalities " by British troops in Palestine. The telegram alleges that British troops are gouging out the eyes of Arabs before killing them, and are also torturing the disinterested civilian population. " The popular method of bringing them to heel is the riding whip, which nearly every Englishman carries," it adds. The German News Agency's Beirut correspondent reports an Arab newspaper as saying that British troops at Attil shut up three Arabs in a shed which was then set on fire, burning them alive. The same newspaper is also quoted as saying all Christians in Palestine and Lebanon are refraining from Christmas celebration " as a token of grief at the terrible conditions in the country." AN EMPHATIC DENIAL SLANDEROUS ALLEGATIONS • British Official Wlrelesst RUGBY, Dec. 23. The War Office to-day denied emphatically the slanderous allegations against the conduct of British troops in Palestine which appeared in the German press. The latest statements in this campaign, which allege atrocities such as the gouging out of the eyes of prisoners and the burning of prisoners alive in a shed, are untrue.