WIDESPREAD SEARCHES PLANNED

Chronicle (Levin), 31 December 1946, Page 5

WIDESPREAD SEARCHES PLANNED

Press Assn

— HUNT FOR JEWISH GUNMEN WHO FLOGGED BRITISH SOLDIERS IN PALESTINE

By Telegraph

.-Copyrig.lt

Received Tuesday, 10.55 a.m. LONDON, December 30. The British military authorities are planning widespread searches of the Lydda and Nathanya districts for the men who earried out the floggings of the British officer, Major Paddy Brett, D.S.O., M.C., who was . kidnapped from the_ Hotel Metropole in Nathanya, and two British non-commissioned officers who were picked up in Tel Aviv by Irgun Zvai Leumi gunmen and whipped in the zoological gardens in full view of a number of people held off with tommy-guns.' This was officially announced in Jerusalem today. The announcement added that this was necessary "in the light of inf.ormation received."

Military Headquarters also announced that all the Jewish communities along the coastal strip of Palestihe, in which 30,000 troops are estimated to be stationed, has been placed out of bounds until further notice. The Ass,ci?.ted Press' Jerusalem correspondent savs tlrs action has been taken because of fears that the soldiers might retaliate for the floggings. The provost-marshal's office has reported that fceflng is running high in the military camps. Jewish Agency sources have deplored the floggings but made no further comment. Meanwhile, reports from Tel Aviv sav that a police offlcer has been missing for thirty-six hours. Jt is feared that he has been kidnapped by the Stern Gang, whose activities he previously helped to curb. In Jerusalem todav the G.O.C., Lieut.-General Sir Evelyn Barker, confirmed the Jerusalem mihtarv court's sentence of tv/elve strokes of the cane on the seventeen-year-old Jew, Aaron Cohen, who was convicted on charges of handling pamphlet bombs. LieutGeneral Barker cancelled the court's sentence of three months' imprisonment. Irgun Zvai Leumi at the same time circulated in Tel Aviv pamphlets claiming that they were responsible for the floggings

vesterday, and announcing that :n future Irgun Zvai Leumi will pass the death sentence on British troops in retaliation for the flogging of any of their members. The manager of the Hotel Metropole, describing how Major Brett was kidnapped, said that five men armed with tommy-guns entered the lounge where Major Brett and his wife were sitting. They then ordered Major Brett to put up hitf "nands and took him away in a motor car. He limped back to the hotel in his underwear. ! The Irgun Zvai Leumi told Major ! Brett: "You are only the first of the officers who will be flogged in I the future." The Palastine Broadcasting Service said that Major Brett received 20 strokes with a leather strap. Major Brett, according to the British United Press correspondent, said he was given "two extra" (18 lashes was the sentence earried out today on Abraham Kimchin, a Jewish terrorist implicated in the Jaffa bank robbery). The flogging took place in a house in Nathanya for which the police are now searching. Ten men held Major Brett while the flogging was going on. Major Brett related how he was blindfolded and taken about six miles from Nathanya, tied to a wooden rack, and given 20 strokes.