Grand Mufti Flees to Syria

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 21, 18 October 1937, Page 5

Grand Mufti Flees to Syria

-Preaa Aaan.-r

ESCAPES IN DISGUISE May OrgaiiUe Arab RcaUty ance from Damascus ARRESTS IN PALESTINE

(By Telegraph-

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(Eeceived 18, 8.45 a.m.) JERUSALEM, Qct, 16Tbe Grand Mufti has escaped from Pale&tiue. He eiuded arrest by hiding m a uiosque, aDd then fled in disguise to Syria, The Palestine autlioriUes ordered his deportation, togetber with. that of other members of the Avab Higher Cammittee, after the recent murder of the Commissioner for Gali-. leo, which was the climax 0# Arab terrorism iast. month. The Mufti, after spreading a report. that he was ill, fled to the Mosque of Qmar disguised in a Bedouin's hooded hernous. Other- follpwers aecoinpanied hira. Guarded by 20 raounted Bedouins, he later motored 60 miles to Gaza, where he boarded a motor-launch for Syria, It was intended to connect by motor to the Lebanese coast, but the Mufti aiissed the motor^car. A Frenoh eoast guard cutter overhauled the motor launch and discovered the identity of the Mufti, whom it escorted to Beyrout. Tho authorities requested hira to depart, and he then went on to Da«mascus. where, it is believed, he Joined his nephew, Jamal Husseini, whQ escaped arrest. on October 1- Apparently Husseini organised the Mufti 's escape". It ia suggested that they will now "be ablp tp organise an anti-Government: campaign in Palestine from Damaspus, but the French High Commissioner ha?

requested the Syrian Eepublic tp fprbid suoh activities. The Mufti may go either to Turkey or Iraq, Coincidentally with. the Mufti 's flight, the Palestine Administration has token over the Moslem religioua endowment trusts or "wakf," from which the Mqfti d.erived rauch of his power, The Mufti before his flight issued a in&nifesto prdering his ca--ieligionists to continue thp fight against oppression. During the past 12 hours 150 minor Arab leaders' and agitatQls have bU®D arrested. The authorities, failing to secure Najielnah, who is suspected to have been a participant in yesterday 's disturbances, have seized hia 15-year-old son as a hostage. Mve more Arab ' leaders have been arreatefl and taken to the eoncentration camp a.t Acre, where 20Q pther auspeets arrested throughout the opuntty have been interned. Believed tQ be thp result of sabptuge, the Customs slxe.dt wirelesa room and other buildings at Lydda airport were burnt, out, MaiorrGeneral Warell, the British ppinmander, haa imposed tbe curfew at Lydda and ordered the destruction of seyeral hQUSea as a tepri^ sal for tlip sabotage at the airport, where the damage " ig estimated at £5000. It ia annouuped from Rome that the aliiafs of the most important Arab tribes in Lib^a havp telegraphed Signor Mussolini assuriug liim of tlieir soiidarity With the Palestine Arabs "following recent events."-