0 %5 ^ (-Pahti,) Confidential
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CO. Q 3 5 FOR THE USE OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE MIDDLE EAST No. 64 &0 %5 ^ (-PAHTI,) CONFIDENTIAL NARRATIVE DESPATCHES FROM THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR PALESTINE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES REPORTING ON THE SITUATION IN PALESTINE FROM J.OSED 26th SEPTEMBER 1937 ^JNTIL xj-p TO 31st DECEMBER 1938 (PART 2 OF THIS VOLUME CONTAINS SIMILAR DESPATCHES COVERING THE PERIOD 1st JANUARY, 1939, TO 20th AUGUST, 1939.) 21 FOR THE USE OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE MIDDLE EAST No. 64 CONFIDENTIAL NARRATIVE DESPATCHES FROM THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR PALESTINE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES REPORTING ON THE SITUATION IN PALESTINE FROM 26th SEPTEMBER 1937 TO 31st DECEMBER 1938 TABLE OF CONTENTS No. DATE OF DESPATCH PERIOD COVERED PAGE 1 14th October 1937 26th September 1937 - 13th October 1937 1 2 23rd October 1937 14th October 1937 - 20th October 1937 9 3 18th November 1937 21st October 1937 - 10th November 1937 12 4 23rd November 1937 11th November 1937 - 23rd November 1937 18 NO NARRATIVE DESPATCHES WERE SENT COVERING •— THE PERIOD 24th November, 1937 - 51st January, 1958 5 25th February 1938 1st February 1938 - 15th February 1938 24 6 22nd March 1938 16th February 1938 - 15th March 1938 25 7 14th April 1938 16th March 1938 - 7th April 1938 31 8 14th July 1938 8th April 1938 - 30th June 1938 36 9 13th September 1958 1st July 1938 - 31st August 1938 43 10 24th October 1958 1st September 1938 - 2nd October 1938 54 11 3rd December 1938 3rd October 1938 - 9th November 1938 65 12 29th December 1933 10th November 1938 - 15th December 1938 78 15 16th January 1939 16th December 1938 - 31st December 1938 91 39146-1 No. 1 THE OFFICER ADLINISTEKHiG THE GOVuiUJLaiT to THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Received 23th October, 1937.) (SECRET) Jerusalem, 14th October, 1937. Sir, 1. I have reported to you by telegraph trie successive developments in the situation in this country since the 28th September, but I feel that the time is now opportune to give you a full account of the events which have taken place since the tragic murder of Mr. Andrews and British Constable LIcEwan in Nazareth. 2. The story of the murder may be briefly told. As Mr. Andrews and Mr. Pirie-Gordon accompanied by Mr. Andrews' escort Constable McEwan were walking to Evensong at the Anglican Church in Nazareth, they were set on in the narrow twisting road leading to the Church by four Arab assassins. Constable McEvran, who was walking behind }Ir. Andrews, was shot first and died witliin half an hour -without regaining consciousness. Mr. Andrews was killed outright and Mr. Pirie-Gordon who slipped as he turned to go to Mr. Andrews' help, had a miraculous escape as while he was on the ground, several shots were fired at him. 3. Within twenty minutes of the murder all the roads in the Galilee District had been closed by the Police; but despite this promptness, the murderers made good their escape and hive not been arrested. At dawn on the 27th, the police dogs which had been sent overnight from Jerusalem, were taken to the scene of the murder and given scent from two different tracks both of whicn led to the main Nazareth - Haifa road, where they lost the trail. Subsequent enquiry indicates, however, the possibility that the murderers took to the hills on foot and were not picked up by a waiting motor car, as was at first suspected. 4. Immediately after the murder Mr. Keith-Roach arrived from Haifa and took over temporary charge of the Galilee District, and during the night of the 26th/27th September I gave orders for the arrest of all suspects in the District. Forty four were taken that night and by the 30th September, altogether one hundred and dnety six orders of detention in Acre Detention camp had been signed, 5. Next morning the two bodies were conveyed to Jerusalem by road. Their passage across the Emek where the Jewish population turned out en masse to pay their last respects, and later through Samaria by wa%.of Jenin and Nablus, created a deep impression; and at the funeral in the afternoon which I attended officially with the General Officer Commanding the British Troops in Palestine and the Executive and Advisory Councils, a very large number of the British and Jewish Communities was present and also a few Arabs, including Dr. Hussein Khalidi, the Mayor of Jerusalem. The two men were buried with military honours side by side in the British Cemetery overlooking the Valley of Hinnom. 6. The news of the murders spread very rapidly and created a deep impression among all sections of the population, and on the 27th September, I published a notice expressing the deep regret of the Government. Later in the day the Arab Higher Committee issued a statement deploring the crime and condemning its perpetrators, and on the following day the Vaad Leumi issued its statement in which Mr. Andrews' service towards Palestine generally and the Jewish National Home in particular, was eloquently described. 7. On the C8th September, all the Arabic daily newspapers published the statement of the Arab Higher Committee without comment; but on the following day, by which time a considerable number of political undesir ables, had been placed in the Acre Detention Camp, they opened their columns to comment on the lines that while no section of the Palestine population was more sincere than the Arabs in their condemnation of the two murders and of terrorism in general, the Government was far from, justified in exploiting the tragic event by imprisoning without trial hundreds of innocent Arabs. 8. On the 29th September, further evidence became available that this was the official version of Arab reaction, in the shape of a request to me by the Arab Higher Committee to receive them as a body. I realized that they proposed to make an official protest over the arrests and refused to see them, intimating that I was prepared to consider what they had to say if they addressed me by letter. Their written protest reached me on the morning of the 1st October. 9. On the 50th September I received your final telegram of instructions and proceeded to put them into immediate execution according to arrangements which I had previously made with the General Officer Commanding British Troops in Palestine and the Acting Inspector-General of the Palestine Police. No arrests were made during the day but police leave was stopped and in the evening the Force stood to while the troops were in readiness. 10. The necessary Defence Regulations had already been prepared covering the issues of deportation, the declaration as unlawful associa tions of the Arab III;her CoiVi.it.tee and the National Committees in Palestine, and the deprivation of Haj Amin Eff. Al Husseini of his two posts of President of the Supreme Moslem Council and Chairman of the General Wakfs Committee. These Orders were published on the 1st October and I am enclosing copies* for your information. 11. It had been known overnight and it was even published in the local Press on the morning of the 1st October, that Police leave had been stopped, but although the news had caused some comment, it is never theless a fact that the action which you had authorized and which was put into operation at dawn on the 1st October, completely took the country by surprise, and, in fact, the first intimation that reached the public generally that anything was afoot, was when they learned that the telephone service liad been suspended on my orders during the period when the arrests were due to bo effected. 12. Dr. Hussein Khalidi, the Mayor of Jerusalem, and Fuad Effendi Saba, the Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, had been taken enrly in Jerusalem and a few hours later Ahmad Hilmi Pasha, the Treasurer of the Arab Higher Committee and the Director of the Arab Bank Limited, was apprehended in Gaza; and early in the afternoon, these three gentlemen were placed on board H.M.S. "Sussex" which had arrived at Haifa late on the previous evening. They were joined on board by Rashid Haj Ibrahim, the Manager of the Haifa branch of the Arab Bank Limited, whose arrest for deportation I had ordered earlier in the Jay. 13. The remaining two members of the Arab Higher Committee against whom warrants had been issued, Yacoub Effendi Ghussein and Jamal Effendi Al Husseini, could not, however, bo found during the day; but early on the following morning Yacoub Effendi Ghussein surrendered himself to the Police at Ramieh and was embarked at Jaffa at mid-day on board H.M.S. "Active", to which the other four deportees had been transferred from H.M.S. "Sussex" on the previous evening. H.M.S. "Active" then left for the Seychelles whither she is proceeding direct. * Not reprinted. 39146-1 2 14. Jamal Effendi Al Husseini has not been arrested, and is > - * believed to have escaped into Syria where he is reported to be living in Damascus* 15. This narrative must now revert to the morning of October 1st and to Palestine. 16. As soon as I had ascertained that four of the deportees were in the hands of the police, I raised the suspension of the internal telephone service with the exception of four lines in Jerusalem, two belonging to the Supreme Moslem Council, one to Haj Amin Effendi Al Husseini and the fourth to the Moslem General Congress. These four lines are still suspended. Simultaneously, however, I used my powers under Regulation 12 of Defence Regulations 1936 and prohibited the use of all telephones - except a very limited number of official and consular lines - for the purpose of effecting or receiving trunk calls with and from countries outside Palestine.