BRITISH MAJOR IS ACQUITTED OF A CHARGE OF MURDER

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 October 1947, Page 5

BRITISH MAJOR IS ACQUITTED OF A CHARGE OF MURDER

Jerusalem, Oct. 2 The court-martial found that Major Farran had no case to answer on a charge of murdering a Jewish youth, Alexander Rubowitz. The court, in acquitting Farran, upheld the defence submission that there was no case to answer without a body or part of a body—a submission to which .the prosecution had earlier agreed. Farran’s counsel had told the court that for 200 years in Britain no accused had ever*'been convicted of murder or manslaughter in the absence ol a body.

Army officers connected with the preparation of the prosecution’s case said after trial that oven if Farran’s immediate senidr, Colonel Barnard Fergusson, had agreed to disclose conversations he had with Farran on May 7 after the disappearance of Rubowitz, there would still have been nothing save circumstantial and hearsay evidence against Farran. Colonel Fergusson, on the first day of the trial, refused to give evidence about this conversation because he said that doing so might lead him into danger of being prosecuted. Military legal authorities guaranteed that Colonel Fergusson was not due to be prosecuted as an accessory, but the colonel continued to refuse to give this evidence. Colonel Fergusson informed “The Times” (London) correspondent that he sent in his resignation from the Palestine police in June and he leaves Palest’ne shortly to revert to the army, after taking leave.

The correspondent adds that members of the anti-terrorist unit in which Farran operated are probably returning to Britain, as their unit has been disbanded. The unit had some success in tracking down terrorists.