Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) SATURDAY, 15th AUGUST, 1936. PALESTINE POSITION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 August 1936, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times (Established Over 60 Years.) SATURDAY, 15th AUGUST, 1936. PALESTINE POSITION.

Although acts of violence and brigandage continue in the country districts of Palestine, order has generally been restored in the towns, though at some cost in loss of lives and property. Under Defence Orders in Council of 1931, the High Commissioner has taken extreme powers lvliich amount to martial law in all but name. They include powers of proclaimingcurfew, censorship, execution, or deportation of convicted marauders, entry and search of houses by police without warrant, collective fines upon villages for offences, appropriation and demolition Avithout compensation of houses Avhence firearms are discharged or bombs throAvn. These poAvers have been very moderately used. Strong British military forces Avere brought in to aid the police

in suppressing riots and patrolling roads, and to man or protect vital services, such as railways. They have had to deal with Jewish as well as Arab offenders. The British soldier has performed These difficult duties with his traditional skill, cheerfulness and humanitarian consideration in dealing with civilian riots. The authorities have had to combat a widespread disturbance just short of general insurrection, fomented, by strikes, and these have been encouraged by imported Communists, and at one time, “The Times” declares, by Italian agents. .There has also been some contagion caught from Arab discontent in neighbouring French Syria, expressed as a panArab aggressive movement. The Supreme Arab. Committee and the Moslem Council dissociated themselves from the strikes, and have been temporarily unable to control the resultant violence. In the Transjordanian region of the mandated territory, the Arabs, under “the steadying influence of the Emir Abdullah,” have remained cpiiet and unaffected.