CALL TO SURRENDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26783, 28 May 1948, Page 5

CALL TO SURRENDER

BESIEGED JEWISH TROOPS ARABS USE PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE Rec. 8 p.m.' LONDON. May 26. Besieged Jews holding out in the catacombs under Jerusalem last night heard a voice booming at them through loudspeakers, warning teem to surrender before it was too late. Jewish fighters, peering from rifle slots in the ancient Notre Dame Hospice and the modern. Barclay’s Bank heard the voice address them from Pontius Pilate s Judgment Hall a> mile away. “ Jews of Jerusalem, the bodies of 600 Jews lie at tCie. Babel Wad roadblock on the Jcrusalem-Tel-Aviv road,’’ said the voice. “They died in a hopeless attempt to break through the iron ring which is around Jerusalem. .No relief can come to you. You can spare yourselves, your wives and children untold misery if you surrender before it is too late.” The Red Cross relayed an Arab surrender demand to 100 Jews holding out in a stone building. The Arabs then blew up the building with all the defenders. Arab soldiers were close enough to hear the Jews’ screams. An Arab-speaking radio in Cyprus reported that Egyptian planes returning from Tel-Aviv attacked a Jewish armoured force near Acre. Heavy bombers carried out extensive raids on South Palestine. . The heaviest fighting yet seen in the Palestine ' campaign is developing in the Bab el Wad-Latrun area, west of Jerusalem, because Jewish military leaders are intent on relieving the pressure on Jerusalem by fully leopening the Jerusalem-Tel-Aviv supply road. , '» . The Jews believe that Arab Legion forces are thinning out north oJerusalem, because they are being transferred to the Latrun area. The Arabs claim that a three-hour Jewish attack aimed at breaking into the Old City of Jerusalem from the Sheikh Jarrah area, ended at dawn todav when the Jews retreated. The Arabs also say that the , last Jewish pockets in the Old City have been cleft in two by Arab armoured cars, which opened an avenue through to the Jaffa Gate. , „ . The British-controlled Near East radio reported that the Egyptian Air. Force attacked Tel-Aviv with the heaviest bombers yet used. An Egyptian Government communique says that two Zionists arrested near Egyptian army camps at Gaza,- made a written statement admit-

ting that they received orders from the Jewish commander of the Dorot settlement to throw typhoid and dysentery germs into Egyptian troops' drinking water. The Zionists said they threw a bottle of microbes into a well north of Gaza Foreign correspondents in Jerusalem have sent a strongly-worded protest to Mr David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, complaining of the delay caused by lack of communications and the attitude of the local Jewish authorities in the transmission of despatches. . , The protest says in part: Foreign correspondents are appalled to discover that none of the despatches they have written in the past historic week have reached their destination. They are unable to find out why this is, or where the hold-up occurs. Owing either to utter inefficiency, obstruction, or unwillingness to co-operate, no proper or effective effort is being made by the Jewish authorities, to whom we have repeatedly appealed, to ensure that the Jewish story from Jerusalem is being told.” The United States State Department announced in Washington tnat Lebanon agreed to release the 41 Americans seized from the American ship Marine Carp, en route to Palestine, on condition that they returned direct to the United Mr Lowell Pinkerton, United States Minister, in Lebanon, reported that he was consulting the interned Americans about the Lebanese proposal.

About 24 United States Air Force Douglas transport planes have been sent to Cyprus to evacuate American citizens from the Middle East if necessary. The State Department, which announced this, declined to elaborate on the s f atement which read: “In view of the unsettled cond'tions, these planes are being h°ld at Nicosa airport, Cyprus, should they be required t« evacuate American citizens in the area.” The Associated Press correspondent in Paris says that Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations mediator for Palestine, had left by‘ air for the Middle East