ONLY fifteen minutes before curfew time last night thousands of Jewish settlers were out cluttering the roads of the Palestine coastal stretch between Tel Aviv and Hertzlia, about eight miles to the north.
If there is mass curfew-breaking after dark the difficulties of the police and the Sixth Airborne Division troops concentrated with heavy armour in the area will be great. They have taken precautions in readiness for clashes.
Observers last night say the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Two British sergeants, four British constables and eight Palestinian constables were wounded when two police coastguard stations north of Tel Aviv were blown up yesterday and later attacked with automatic weapons.
British Military HQ in Jerusalem later said the explosives were laid by Jews. Thousands of Jews from the town of Hadera, near Tel Aviv, yesterday packed into a Jewish settlement now surrounded by Sixth Airborne Division troops. With food and blankets they are prepared to spend all night and today there, surrounded with troops maintaining a cordon.
Elderly people and young children took part in this mass manoeuvre intended to prevent a search for illegal immigrants. Past attempts to search Jewish settlements have frequently resulted in the police having to withdraw in face of a menacing attitude by the settlers. The first indication that the Jews who attacked a coastguard suffered casualties was contained in an official communiqué last night which said that bloodstains and bandages were left behind. A Jewish spokesman on the 'Voice of Israel' illegal radio station yesterday claimed that the police were warned in advance before the two coastguard stations near Tel Aviv were blown up by 'Jewish Volunteers'.
New York Mayor on Partition
'A GLARING injustice' was how New York's Mayo-born Mayor, General William O'Dwyer described the partition of Ireland when speaking at a testimonial to Fr Sean
S Reid at the Henry Hudson Hotel. 'There is depression and discrimination in Ireland and we must protest until the invader has withdrawn from the last foot of Irish soil,' he added.
General O'Dwyer continued: 'And now, with the sounds of battle silenced, there is a distinction between the victory won and the peace to be written. It is a basic principle of our American democracy that we will not countenance oppression in any part of the world. Consequently, I have raised my voice against injustice. I have spoken against the persecution of the Jewish people . 'The restoration of civil liberties in Ireland was not secured with Catholic Emancipation and the struggle continued. Towards the end of the First World War the Irish were making progress and the invader was slowly being driven back until in 1921 a great measure of freedom was attained. But it was not complete freedom and there are still glaring injustices in that one little corner. There is oppression and discrimination there and we must protest until the invader has withdrawn from the last foot of Irish soil.'