SOUTH PALESTINE IS PEACEFUL

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5290, 31 December 1946, Page 7

SOUTH PALESTINE IS PEACEFUL

JfERRORISTS AND BjLQODSILED T HAVE NO PLACE THEivE y * HAJFA Terrorism, hatred and intrigue storm bloodily across two-thirds of |the Holy Land, but in the southern fone-third, bounded by the Mediteriranean, the Dead Sea, and the Red pea, 100-old Palestinian policemen, knotorised and camel-mounted, mainfain peace and order among 90-000 gemi-nomadic Bedouin tribesmen. "Politics — domestic or intemational — are practically non-existent in the dcsert," said Major H. S. Mansfield, DuUin-born officer in eKarge of the "lOur1 principal pro'bifems afle g/us-running, drug-smuggling -and the q uijk tempers- of a primitive people ■uhf wear guns, swords and knives l|is I part o(f their clothin-g.'" He lfeaned back against a motorised guncjamer in the shade of an ancient -Well of the Huzayemi Bedouins. Gruntijig camels, thirsty cattle, horses and dsses singling in from sand dunes and tribesfolk filling their water jats, milled1 around him. "The tem-ptation offered by rich E.jyptian marlkets for hashish and opium, ■ tribal demands for arms, and the Bedouin practice of settling argiunents on the spot keeos us -alert." hc said. His c'ommand of 20 British officers and technicians, and 137 Arabs patrol jlmost 3000 square miles of desert gnd boulder-ribbed hills, most of vrhich is reachable only -on cgmels. ("The Arab -camelry," the niajor elplained, "carries most of the load. // abs of opium bought in Syria or Lsbanon for £1 each sift down through Palestine bound for £25 markets in Ciiro. Or a small hOatload of contraband rifles shows off an isolated i^fediterranean beach. The word g'ets "around. Widely-scattered camelry posts are alerted by radio. A motorised patrol takes to the highway, maintaining the radio contact with :the posts. Then the camel patjrols bok out into the hlue, ready for anything. It is usually the camelry that ma^es the captures." li addition to its man-hunting activlties, the all-Arab camel patrols tike on jobs like breaking up inter-dan skirmishes, rescuing stolen itHidens from amorous young sheiks and arbitrating in grazing boundary fep ites. "Even thotgh wev dover the free arms area wh^re Bedouins are permitted to go fui\y armed, ours is far and away the m^st peaceful district in Palestine," Ma^held jsaid. "The tribes have a health^ respect for the hard-riding, -straigfefe.vsfeooting camelry. Frequently #Af ask for advice before their disputes reach the violent stage." , . ; ' A survey of national .ptfJoe.re'ports for the last five morith^-ja'pariod in which hiombers and ihtedd^-ed left fear and hatred from Haifa to Jeru- ! salem— bears out Major Mansfield's claims. Fewer than a score of cases have been recorded. All have heen settled to the satisfaction o'f the tribes and the central Government.