Britain disclaimed responsibility Tuesday for the activities of King Abdullah’s British-trained British-officered Arab legion…
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Ramallah, Palestine, May 18 (AP)-Trans-Jordon Arab legionnaires are strongly established in central Palestine after three days of methodical operations, almost without firing a shot.
(Ramallah, in the heart of that portion of Palestine marked Arab by the United Nations partition plan, is ten miles northwest of Jerusalem and 15 miles west of the Trans-Jordan border.)
Legion outposts are within five miles of Jerusalem on the north and south.
In a pocket-size country like this, legion guns defending Arab territory need to move forward only six or eight miles to bring the outskirts of Tel Aviv, temporary capital of Israel, within range.
In excitable Arab towns such as Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus, the appearance of the legion in force lifted the population from gloom to jubilation. Hundreds of military age men once again are brandishing rifles and racing about the country in trucks, singing war songs. These are irregulars, or “strugglers,” as they are called in Arabic, and it is not hard to understand why they have been so ineffective in the guerrilla warfare against the Jews since December.
The Arab in a well-trained, well-outfitted force like the legion is an entirely different sort of fighting man.