§ 2.35 P.m.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government the following question, of which I have given them private notice—namely, whether they have any statement to make on the terrorist attack on Acre Gaol in Palestine, and the escape of the prisoners.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (VISCOUNT HALL)My Lords, at half past four in the afternoon of May 4, a party of armed Jews, some of whom were wearing British military uniforms, arrived in British military transport in the market place at Acre. Simultaneously with their arrival explosions occurred in the town and firing broke out in various localities. Four main explosions occurred in the vicinity of the old Turkish baths which abut on the prison and as a result one wall surrounding the exercise ground was breached. This attack took place at the time when the prisoners were at exercise and numbers of Arab and Jewish prisoners escaped through the breach in the wall. At the same time grenades were thrown by the attackers into the criminal lunatic section of the prison, wounding several inmates, and automatic small arms fire was directed at the prison from various points.
The attackers were engaged by police and troops both in Acre town itself and in the vicinity. Immediately after the attack military and police patrols were organized, and one of these, a party of paratroops, having been fired on by a number of Jews, returned fire and inflicted five casualties, one of which was fatal. This was a Jew dressed as a Captain in the Royal Engineers. Troops also intercepted two vehicles carrying Jews north of the town. After a brief engagement twelve Jews were captured, 390 two of whom were dead and three wounded. One of the dead Jews was dressed in the uniform of a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps. Another dead Jew dressed in British military uniform was found in an Army truck abandoned on the outskirts of the city.
After the attack, roads in the vicinity of Acre town were found to he mined. Six soldiers travelling in a military truck wore wounded by one of these mines. Other casualties during the attack on police and prison personnel were limited to one officer slightly injured and a British constable seriously wounded in the leg. In the action immediately following the attack, fourteen Jewish prisoners were recaptured, of whom four were dead and six injured. Of the Arab prisoners, twelve wire recaptured, of whom one was killed and two injured. Extensive operations have continued for the recapture of the escaped prisoners and further details are still coming in. My latest report on May 6 stated that twenty-nine Jews and 214 Arabs were still at liberty. The fullest investigations into the circumstances of this occurrence are being made.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I am obliged to the noble Viscount for that full statement. Arising out of it, may ask him two further questions? First of all, of the twenty-nine Jews who are still at liberty, could he say how many of them are convicted terrorists who were in the prison? Secondly, as it is obvious that the object of this unfortunately successful attack was to release terrorists who had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and who were incarcerated in Acre prison, would it not be a much wiser policy that terrorists who are convicted should be incarcerated in some part of the British territory outside Palestine, instead of being kept in a prison on which it is almost certain that terrorist gangs will make an attack?
§ VISCOUNT HALLMy Lords, in reply to the first question put by the noble Viscount, twenty-one of the twenty-nine prisoners referred to were members of the Irgun Zvai Leumi. of those twenty-one, sixteen were serving sentences of fifteen years for carrying and discharging firearms, imposed in April 1946, following an attack on the railway. Eight of the twenty-nine were members of the Stern Group. Of those eight five were serving 391 life sentences imposed in June for carrying and discharging firearms. With regard to the second question, it is true to say that certain of the terrorists have been incarcerated in Eritrea, but—as is well known—difficulties have arisen in connexion with that territory. Some of the prisoners have been transferred to Kenya. The difficulty is to find territories to which one can send the terrorists. An attempt is being made to deal with this matter. It is being considered
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONI am much obliged to the noble Viscount, but surely, though there may be difficulties, those are difficulties which we have often encountered before, and overcome. We have, for instance, put many persons of different kinds in the Seychelles. After all, the lives of British troops are at stake. Here we have a reinforcement of some of the most dangerous of these terrorist gangs; those people have now escaped and have gone back to reinforce the terrorists. Surely this is a much more important and urgent matter than the difficulty of finding somewhere within the wide confines of the British Commonwealth to place those people? May I venture to remind the Government that during the war, when we expected invasion, we found no difficulty in sending the most dangerous Nazi prisoners outside this country, and it was a very good thing that we did so.
§ VISCOUNT HALLOne could deal with problems of this kind very much more easily during the period of the war than one can now. It would be almost impossible to put any number of these terrorists on a small island like the Seychelles.
§ LORD HARLECHWhy?
§ VISCOUNT HALLThere is the question of defence and, indeed, the question of protecting the remainder of the population. The noble Viscount can be assured that this matter has been and still is being considered.
§ LORD HARLECHMight I ask this question following on the noble Viscount's reply? Having been at the Colonial Office, and having sent dangerous people to the Seychelles and St. Helena, I should have thought it would be legally possible and much better, to send dangerous terrorists of this kind to some place where 392 they can be approached from outside only by the sea.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONYes.
§ LORD HARLECHThe Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang have not got ships; and ships would be detected from those places. As those terrorists are absolute desperadoes and fanatical people, the only hope is to get them far away from places where their co-fanatics can repeat the Acre incident, whether in Kenya, Eritrea or elsewhere. There are the West Indian islands. After all, we are entitled to remove them to anywhere within the British Commonwealth, and I hope that this matter will be seriously considered.
THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, in the answer given to the noble Viscount, the Acting Leader of the Opposition, by the noble Viscount on behalf of His Majesty's Government, it was stated that immediately after the explosions patrols of the military and police were formed to search the surrounding areas. But, with a prison situated as this one was, full of hostile prisoners, where it was of the greatest importance to the terrorists that those prisoners should get out, was there no system of patrol in existence beforehand? It would appear almost incredible that preparations for their escape could have been made if military and police patrols had been searching the area. I should like to ask the noble Viscount whether he can assure the House that the military authorities have not been prevented from taking the precautions they would have liked because of any question of appeasement of the population, or any nonsense of that sort.
§ VISCOUNT HALLI can assure the noble Earl that there is no interference at all with the military authorities. The military authorities and the civil authorities have been working in the closest co-operation on this matter.