NEW REPORT ON MUFTI

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24903, 17 June 1946, Page 5

NEW REPORT ON MUFTI

Ship Searched At Port Said

RUMOURED EXILE TO SEYCHELLES

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, June 16. “It is generally believed at Port Said that the British destroyer Virago, which dashed through the Suez Canal with first priority, was carrying the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to exile in the Seychelles Islands,” says Reuter’s correspondent. “An Admiralty official told the press that the British troop-laden transport Devonshire was intercepted by a British destroyer outside Port Said and searched before entering the canal, because of the possibility that the-Mufti had stowed away aboard. The -official added that the Government was. making efforts to prevent the Mufti from reaching the Middle East.” The “Sunday Express” correspondent in Cairo says: “The first phase of this mystery story was the arrival off Port Said last Friday of the Devonshire from Britain. She was scheduled to berth and discharge troops, but instead she hove to seven miles off the coast and remained there until late in the afternoon, when she was seen to be joined by a destroyer. An armed party was seen to board the Devonshire. “Next, the destroyer signalled Navy House asking for a senior British pilot, insisting on ‘British.’ There was no British pilot available, so one was sent for from Ismailia. Then the destroyer signalled asking for first priority passage through the canal. “The destroyer steamed through the canal-at 12 J knots, the normal speed being 7| knots. She was seen early yesterday heading down the Red Sea. “When the Devonshire entered port the dock was heavily guarded by military police, and no one was allowed to disembark.” The correspondent says that the warrant for the Mufti’s arrest, issued in Jerusalem on October 1, 1937, when he led the Arab revolt, still holds good. The police would be bound to arrest him if he appeared in Palestine. Five of the Mufti’s associates, who were with him and worked for the Germans during the war, were recently interned on the Seychelles Islands.” Reuter’s correspondent in Damascus reports that the press has published a statement from the Syrian Prime Minister (Saadullah Jabry) denying that the Mufti has arrived in Syria.