KIDNAPPED MEN FOUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26485, 12 June 1947, Page 5

KIDNAPPED MEN FOUND

BEING HELD AS HOSTAGES NINE SUSPECTS DETAINED JERUSALEM, June 10. A military patrol to-day found the two kidnapped British policemen near Tel-Aviv- They were near the PolishJewish colony of Kiriat Shaul. This is the spot where Judge Windham, whom the Irgun Zvai Leumi abducted in January, was liberated. The Irgun Zvai Leumi are reported to have, claimed that they released the policemen after receiving an unofficial assurance that none of the Irgun Zvai Leumi terrorists under arrest would be executed. British Army officers denied knowledge of any such assurance. The kidnapped men were Sergeant E. F. Hackett, of London, and Constable P. C. Ward, of Dublin. They identified a young Jew as one of the kidnappers when the army, after a search of Kiriat Shaul, held an identification parade. Nine were detained in the search, including the owner and three occupants of the house in which the kidnapped policemen were kept. The policemen said the kidnappers carried them from the swimming pool and placed them in a lorry, where they were tied, gagged, blindfolded, and then put in an old wardrobe. The kidnappers sat on the - wardrobe during the half-hour’s drive, and carried the wardrobe into the. house, where they removed the blindfolds and gags and gave the policemen food, beer, and cigarettes.

“ They told us we were being held as hostages for five men on trial in Jerusalem,” said the policemen. “They said that if their men were sentenced to death they would hang us right there with lengths of rope they showed us, with nooses in the end.”