Moslems vs. Jews, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 6, 1947.

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The toll from five days of riot and battle as the Arab world’s 40,000,000 Moslems violently protested the partition of Palestine mounted close to 100 Friday with belated reports of a reign of terror in Arabia’s Aden, where 44 persons were said to have been killed.

Meanwhile, it was announced in Washington that the United States clamped an embargo on licensed shipments of arms and ammunition to Palestine and neighbor countries “in view of the current disorders in the Middle East.” The State Department said until further notice the Government was discontinuing “licensing of all shipments of arms to the troubled areas.”

Licenses granted in the last 22 months for shipments of arms and ammunition to Palestine and six other countries showed such shipments totaled in value less than $8000 official records show.

Arab guns cracked along a five-mile smoke-blackened “front” in the border area of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and Palestine’s death roll, by Associated Press count, mounted to 48.

ARAB PRAYERS

Elsewhere, in Egypt; Syria, Iraq and Lebanon Arabs faced Holy Mecca and prayed to Allah for help against partition. Most of them then turned to peaceful pursuits on the Moslem Sabbath, but in Aden, the British colony on the Arabian coast, serious disorder prevailed.

The British Colonial Office said the trouble started Tuesday after a partial Arab strike erupted into an invasion of the Jewish quarter, which resulted in the deaths of 44 persons, 25 Arabs and 19 Jews. A spokesman denied reports that Sir Reginald Champion, the British Governor, had been killed.

The British flew 300 troops into the town from Khartoum and two companies of infantry were dispatched from the Suez canal to support a naval landing party which was attempting to restore order. Curfew was clamped on the area.

Reports from North Africa told of outbreaks in a new quarter when the Arabs of Derna in Libya stormed Jewish metal-smith shops with guns, clubs and hand grenades. A number of shops where American soldiers once bought souvenirs were leveled.

Twenty thousand Egyptians gamed, at Al Azhar mosque in Cairo and broke through police lines at a threatening moment after hearing a fiery priest call for a holy war. But further demonstrations were curbed by the leaders.

A government ban curbed further demonstrations in Baghdad, Iraq, where a mob had sacked a U. S. information office. Some 200 police with rifles and machine guns guarded the U. S. Embassy in Baghdad to protect it from possible attack.

IN LEBANON, SYRIA

Beirut, Lebanon, ancient capital of the Phoenicians, was the scene of a peaceful demonstration by 50,000 persons.

From Damascus, Syria, the rumbles of future trouble for Palestine were loudest. Basic military training was started for volunteers at secondary and high schools, and Fawzi Bey Kawkazi, military leader of the 1930 Palestine Arab revolt, was reported eager to go on the warpath again.

(The United Press reported the Syrian Parliament voted to draft all 19-year-olds into the army. Draftees ordinarily will serve 20 months, but the President was authorized to extend the service indefinitely in case of war.)

In most of Palestine a sullen peace was maintained by the parallel action of Arab leaders and the British army, which kept the Arabs tightly to themselves in all but the volcanic market place between Jewish Tel Aviv and Arab Jaffa.

The British in an extraordinary step Thursday night closed all highways south of Palestine, as far as Hebron, and north as far as Ramallah. The measure halted Arab villagers and tribesmen from jamming Jerusalem for a demonstration on the Moslem Sabbath.

BRITISH ORDERS

British troops, who have been preserving “neutrality” toward implementing the partition decision, said Friday they had received “new orders” Thursday.

They put on a warlike display of moving guns, vehicles and khaki which effectively shut off any trouble in Jerusalem.

(The United Press reported British troops and police were ordered to shoot curfew violators on sight after a savage battle between Arabs and Jews in the slum borderline area of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.)

Roaring flames illuminated this Tel Aviv-Jaffa battlefield where 30 Arab home evacuated by Jewish families were set alight. An official announcement said some of the fires got out of control.

A crescent of gunfire reached from Salemeh village to Jaffa as Arab snipers were answered by patrols of Haganah, the self-styled Jewish defense army, with bombs, grenades, rifles and machine guns.

The Arabs began a two-pronged attack on Tel Aviv’s Hatikvah and Zablawi quarters a few minutes after Moslem congregations had streamed from Jaffa mosques. One Jew was known to have been killed immediately.

Haganah fighters at once sent out flanking patrols and returned the fire. Heavy explosions were heard in the Manshia quarter.

Two Jews were killed, four wounded and one captured in a gun battle with a police armored car which, an official announcement said, surprised them while they were firing into Salameh village with automatic weapons. One of the wounded Jews was then abducted from a Tel Aviv hospital by six other Jews.

Six more Jews were known to have been injured in the border fight. Arab casualties in the battle were not known.

DEATH TOLL

The battle raised the Associated Press count of dead for five days, however, to 25 Jews and 23 Arabs. Hundreds have been injured.

A Haganah communique tonight said the Arab attackers wore the uniforms of the British-commanded Trans-Jordan Arab Legion and Najada, the unofficial army of the Palestine Arab Youth Organization.

The Arabs charged Jews with raiding food shops on both sides of the boundary.

Other incidents in Palestine today included the throwing of a bomb into a Haifa garage, which killed an Armenian.

A Jewish laborer was killed and a Jewish truck driver injured near Ras El Ain northeast of Tel Aviv when their truck was fired upon and overturned.

One Arab was beaten to death by Jews when found carrying a bomb on Tel Aviv’s Moghrabi square in the heart of the business district.

A Jewish civilian employee of the British army was shot and fatally wounded and a British official wounded in the thigh when two men raided a British post exchange and demanded money.

(According to United Press special guards searched thousands of Arabs as they went into mosques in Jerusalem to hold religious services on the Moslem Sabbath. The guards searched for any weapons on the Arabs, who were told to “be patient until the time comes to strike.”

(The order to be calm came from the Arab Higher Committee, which officially represents Palestine Arabs. Some Arabs tore up pamphlets asking for peace, and started to form a procession to march on the Jewish quarter, but spokesmen for the Higher Committee broke it up. The rest of Jerusalem was reported quiet.)