SITUATION GRAVER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 243, 14 October 1938, Page 7

SITUATION GRAVER

DISORDERS IN PALESTINE TENSION CENTRED ROUND BETHLEHEM DR. WEIZMANN REPLIES TO ARAB ULTIMATUM [By Telegraph—Prere Association —Copyright! JERUSALEM, Oct. 12. After another day of killings, bombings, and sabotaging the situation in Palestine is increasingly graver. Large scale troop operations are being planned to quell outrages. To-day’s tension centred at Bethleham, where British troops are drawn up behind sandbag barricades at every strategic point. The Government has announced it is prepared to issue identity cards to all applicants over 16 to protect lhe inhabitants in their relations with the civil and military authorities. They are also designed to counteract the tactics of the rebels in ordering Arabs to wear Bedouin headgear, which has | prevented the distinction of peaceful persons from the rebels. Arab Attitude. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist Federation, in a telegram to the Arab Defence Committee in reply to its ultimatum to the Jews pointed out that persecution would only accentuate the Zionist feeling. He declared that the Arab attitude revealed a regrettable fate for Jewish minorities in Arab countries, and added added that the Jews in Palestine were willing to live in peace with neighbouring Arabs providing their rights were recognised. An attempt to assassinate the District Commissioner, Deward Reithroadh, failed. Two out of four bombs thrown from the city ramparts exploded harmlessly. The Royal Engineers inflicted six casualties among terrorists in an engagement in Nab’us, after which they destroyed the house of a bombthrower. Offices Abandoned. The British United Press Bethlehem correspondent states that the Government has abandoned the police post, post Office, and law courts and has barricaded Rachel's Tomb. Troops are standing by in the Garden of the Nativity. Arabs are reported to have established their own courts in the olive groves. R.A.F. Hostages. The Daily Mail’s special correspondent in Alexandria reports that Arabs are keeping as hostages, without molesting them, two Royal Air Force officers whose plane was brought down in Ramieh. It is understood they are Pilot Officer Debell and Flying Officer F. Scarborough, missing since September 12.

NATIONAL REVOLT THREATENED SUPPORTED BY ENTIRE PEASANTRY. SUBJUGATION WILL NOT BE QUICK. Received Oct. 13, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 13. The Daily Telegraph’s Jerusalem correspondent says that the subjugation of the country will not be quick, as the rebels ate remarkably well organised. Britain is faced with a national revolt supported by the entire peasantry. CANNOT ANSWER FOR THE FUTURE ARAB LEADERS WARNING WILL FIGHT JEWS BY ALL POSSIBLE METHODS. Received Oct. 13, 5.5 p.m. JERUSALEM, Oct. 12. “We will fight Jewish colonisation by all possible methods,” declared Nabih Elzame, Arab rebel leader. He added: “Ten Arab guns are more effective than two thousand foreign rifles when we fight in a sacred cause. The Zionist colonisation is preventing the independence of Palestine, which is the main obpect of the Arab policy. It the Jews persist they will be considered an enemy of everything Arab and Moslem. We cannot answer for the future if they wish to dislodge us.” REBEL COURTS SIT AT NIGHT DEATH SENTENCES IMPOSED. FORTY IN PAST MONTH. Received Oct. 13, 6.5 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 13. The News Chronicle's Jerusalem correspondent, emphasising the brazen operation of the Arab Government, says that rebel courts sit throughout the night, even in Jerusalem under the noses of military and police. Men are fined and sentenced to death, the executed victims being found on the roadside and in doorways daily. There have been 40 of such murders in the past month.