By April 17, 2008 Read More →

Russian Aid to Holy Land, Jews Charged, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 30, 1947.

ExodusClick here to view the original article.

LONDON, Dec. 29 (UP)-A forcing office spokesman charged today that two former American freighters, now attempting to run the British blockade off Palestine with nearly 12,000 illegal Jewish immigrants, sailed with the connivance of the Communist-dominated Romanian and Bulgarian governments.

Implying that Russia had a hand in the incident, the spokesman pointed out that the Romanian and Bulgarian regimes were in “closest” relations with the Soviet Union.

(The Associated Press reported a reliable Jewish source in Sofia said 620 Jews-men, women and children-left the Bulgarian capital Saturday for Palestine. A government official said the group had the full assistance of the Bulgarian government. It was not know it this group was aboard either of the ships.)

There were indications that the arrival of the two ships, Pan York and Pan Crescent, off Palestine might precipitate a major crisis in British-Jewish relations.

The Colonial office said it was determined the ships should not land and that all the Jews aboard them would be shunted to Cyprus.

Turkish authorities at Istanbul quoted Jews aboard the ships as saying-

“The only way the British can stop us is to sink us with heavy guns and they don’t dare do that. We will fight any boarding attempt.”

This quotation came from the Turkish pilot who took the Pan Crescent through the Bosporus from the Black sea to the Mediterranean.

He added that the ship carried “young, tough-looking Jews.”

In this connection, there were rumors here that the two ships bore numbers of trained Communist agitators assigned to foment even greater disorder in Palestine.

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