15,000 Riot in Cairo against Partition, Associated Press, NY Times, Dec. 5, 1947

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Police and Frontier Guards Charge Men With Clubs—Demonstrations Banned

CAIRO, Egypt, Dec. 4 (AP)—The Government banned further demonstrations today after police and frontier guards fought a street battle with a crowd of 15,000 protesting the partition of Palestine.

Police and frontier guards charged the mob with clubs and whips and fired their guns in the air. Egyptians who said they were witnesses said that three students were killed in the clash, and that Selim Zaki Pasha, Cairo police chief, was hit by a stone.

Police officials stated, however, that they knew nothing about any fatalities and that the report concerning the police chief was untrue. Unofficial reports said that at least eight of the demonstrators were injured.

The fight took place in Kasr el Aini Street when the mob began storming shops and set five streetcars afire. The demonstrators showered police with stones and bottles. Police said ten arrests were made.

The clash occurred after several hundred youths gathered in front of the Trans World Airlines office, where windows were smashed yesterday by a crowd, and started for Opera Square to join another group of marchers coming in from a Cairo suburb.

One small group threw stones at the American University, smashing windows. [The British Consulate was also stoned, The United Press said.]

Recruiting Office Planned

About 5,000 gathered before the Arab League office where Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, League Secretary General, told them that a recruiting office was being opened for volunteers to fight in Palestine.

He asserted if the United Nations partition decision was implemented by force then, “with the help of God, we will oppose force with force.”

An Arab League informant said 2,500 armed Arabs from Libya had asked how they could serve the cause.

The fourth day of demonstrations in Egypt also was marked by an assembly of factory workers before the United States Consulate and Barclay’s Bank in Alexandria, where there were anti-British and anti-American shouts. Some of the demonstrators visited shops and demanded that the owners hang out Egyptian flags.

The ban on demonstrations came on the eve of a scheduled public conference on the Moslem sabbath after prayers to organize aid for Palestine Arabs.

Sheik Hassan el Banna, leader of the Moslem Brotherhood, said the public conference would be attended by at least four Egyptian political leaders. Moslem Brotherhood battalions, he said, were awaiting orders to move toward Palestine.