TWENTY SUSPECTS ARRESTED

Chronicle (Levin), 24 July 1946, Page 5

TWENTY SUSPECTS ARRESTED

RESPONSIBILITY ADMITTED BY TERRORISTS Received Wednesdav, 11.45 a.m. LONDON, July 23. The Jewish terrorist organisation, Irgun Zvai Leumi, has issued a communique to Press correspondents, acknowledging responsibility for the bombing. It said: "Irgun Zvai Leumi soldiers attacked the centres of the British 'occupation' Government as a battle with the British army and police forces." The communique alleged that the British had disregarded a teiephone warning given twenty-seven minutes before the explosion. It stated that the warning was given to the hotel switchboard, newspaper offices and the French Consulate adjacent to the King David Hotel. A spokesman for the Palestine police said that about twenty suspects had been arrested since the explosion. The police were following meagre clues, which led them only to the definite conclusion that it was the Jews who had perpetrated the outrage. The police have removed for identification all males from the Jewish slum district of Montelfiore, just behind the King David Hotel. Reuter's Jerusalem correspondent reports that one dead Jew and one with bullet wounds were found inside the old walled city. A curfew will be reimposed in Jerusalem at 6 'p.m. The Arabs between noon and five p.m. halted all traffic and closed all shops in sympathy, and also as a protest. The Jewish shops were closed from three p.m. as a mark of sympathy with the victims.