JEWS' TRIAL OPENS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22340, 27 May 1947, Page 5

JEWS' TRIAL OPENS

ATTACK ON GAOL TROOPS GUARD COURT MURDER OF POLICEMAN (10 a.m.) JERUSALEM, May 26. More than 100 troops and police with armoured cars guarded Jerusalem’s military court, and all visitors were searched at the opening of the trial of five Jews, aged between 18 and 23, on charges of firing guns and carrying firearms during the terrorist attack oil Acre prison. As a result of the attack 183 Arab and 39 Jewish prisoners escaped. The police brought four of the Jews into court in chains. Two policemen supported the fifth Jew, who limped into the courtroom. The trial was adjourned until May 28 because one of the accused was certified unfit to appear. Haganah leaflets distributed in Tel Aviv declared that Webster Christie, one of the two British constables who was shot and fatally wounded at a busy street.corner in Jerusalem, was a friend of the Jewish cause. “Constable Christie intended to resign and return to England to tell the truth about Zionist aspirations and the Jewish resistance movement,” said the leaflet. The leaflets, in condemning terrorists in general, pointed to this case as showing that the Stern Gang was even unable to distinguish friend from foe.