EARLIER ASSUMPTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26636, 5 December 1947, Page 5

EARLIER ASSUMPTION

United Nations Administration of Palestine

REQUEST FROM BRITAIN

Rec. 10 p.m. NEW YORK, Dec. I. * The British Government has told the United States that it intends to terminate the Palestine mandate in May, 1948, says the New York Times correspondent in Washington. State Department officials said, though the United Kingdom would not withdraw thp last of its 80,000 troops until October 1, 1948, it would expect the United Nations to assume responsibility for the administration of the Holy Land in May rather than October. \ The reason for asking the United Nations to begin assuming responsibility in May, according to State Department officials, is that by the middle of that month so many British troops Will have been withdrawn that the British will not have sufficient forces in Palestine to provide an efficient Administration. *

A message received in London from Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent said that Arabs and Jews began sniping at each other from rooftops in Jerusalem’s old city last night. British troops occupied the border slums between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, where a pitched battle was fought earlier in the day. The police announced that the casualties in this fight were seven Jews and five Arabs killed and 42 Jews, 27 Arabs, two British policemen and three Palestine policemen wounded. The Associated Press correspondent says the Haganah is guarding nearly every Jewish settlement within reach of Arab territory.

The Irgun Zvai Leumi, breaking the silence it has kept since the United Nations partition announcement, broadcast in Arabic a threat of reprisals for any further Arab killings of Jews. Dr Hussein Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Organisation, stated that Sir Henry Gurney, Palestine chief secretary, called upon the Arabs to end their three-day general strike, which is now in its second day, because it is endangering the country's security. Dr Khalidi blamed " irresponsible elements” for the trouble on Tuesday, and said he discussed with Sir Henry measures to ease the situation. Jewish sources say an Arab attack on the Yarkon River power station was repulsed without damage or casualties. ' Numbers. of Palestinian Arabs were reported early to-day to be crossing the Palestine-Syrian frontier to join a proposed Syrian-Pales-tine ‘‘striking force.” In the Jaffa-Tel-Aviv border area, both sides used. machine guns and grenades. Five Arabs and two Jews were killed and about 20 were wounded in the battle, which lasted for four hours. The authorities immediately clamped a 24-hour curfew on the Jaffa-Tel-Aviv border area, when reports of the renewed largescale fighting reached Jerusalem. Troops of the British First Infantry Division are moving into the “No Man’s "Land” between Tel-Aviv and

Jaffa, where, according to the Associated Press correspondent, the Arabs are making an organised attempt to break through to Tel-Aviv. Jews taking merchandise from the ashes of shops set alight yesterday fired and looted seven Arab shops in Jeru-. salem’s commercial centre to-day. Two Arabs of a group attempting to break out of the old city in violation of the curfew were shot and wounded. Arabs armed with'tommy guns and torches set alight a Jewish-owned timber yard near oil tanks on the outskirts of Haifa to-night, reports Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. All the district fire brigades fought the flames. Haganah went into action against' the Arabs who* attacked the timber yard, and a gun battle ensued. A group of Arab youths broke the curfew in Jerusalem and moved on the Jewish suburb of Montefiore, but Haganah defenders repulsed them. Arabs in demonstrations in Cairo stoned shops and houses, and in a few cases molested Europeans in the streets, says the Cairo correspondent of the British United Press. A crowd of between 3000 and 4000, in spite of the Government ban on demonstrations, began converging on the Arab League building. The situation is tense.

Reuter’s Alexandria correspondent reports that several thousand students demonstrated in Alexandria and disrupted traffic. The demonstrators, later swollen to about 8000, attempted to break into a British armourer's shop, but the police stopped them. Shrieking demonstrators brandished clubs and iron bars. Arabs surged through the Jewish commercial quarter in Alexandria. , , From New York it is reported that the United Nations Secretary-general, Mr Trygve Lie, anounced to-day that he planned to visit Palestine. He also stated that Mr Ralph J. Bunche. United Nations expert on trusteeship, had been appointed principal secretary to the Five-nation Commission, which will supervise Palestine partition. Mr Bunche is an American negro and a grandson of a negro slave. Mr Lie said, he would also visit Europe to survey the prospects of holding the next session of the General Assembly there. Mr Lie also announced the appointment of the Assistant Secretary-general, Mr .Victor Hop (China), as hAid of the Korean Independence Commission, which was established at the last assembly session. Mr Hoo said he proposed to leave for Korea early in January and establish a secretariat of about 25.