Posted on 03/06/2008 6:26:28 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
JERUSALEM, March 5 (AP). – British soldiers pushed mopping up operations today after nine Royal Air Force planes bombed and machine-gunned a band of Arabs, killing between fifty and sixty of their number in the encounter.
Among the dead was Sheikh Attiyah, reputed leader of the band, who long had been sought by police.
The battle was the culmination of a week’s military siege of the “Bloody Triangle,” an area bounded by the towns of Nablus, Jenin and Tul Karm.
Civilians had not been allowed to enter or leave the zone.
Twenty-six of the Arab terrorists were captured after the fight in which 450 natives participated.
The tide turned only when the British radioed for help from the planes. Then the band was routed.
One British soldier was killed and two other soldiers injured.
The troops encountered the band yesterday, and mopping up operations were carried out under the personal direction of Major Gen. A. P. Wavell.
A number of shots were fired today in the neighborhood of Sir Harold’s official residence, “Government House,” in Jerusalem, immediately after the Arabic translation of his last night’s speech was broadcast.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 5. – There has been great agitation throughout Iraq for the past three days in protest against the government’s intention to carry out the frontier treaty with Iran. According to the treaty, half of the Shat el Arab (river in Iraq formed by the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates) is to be taken by Iran, and Basra, which is the most important Iraq port, will become a joint harbor for Iraq and Iran.
The first manifestations of protest were strikes yesterday by students of secondary schools in addition to law and medical students. They attempted to demonstrate but the police intervened. The police are guarding Parliament buildings and are stationed throughout the city. Today students clashed with police and an assistant commandant and several policemen were severely injured.
In the meantime the government is working hard to persuade Members of Parliament to ratify the treaty tomorrow.
Familiar place names.
LONDON, March 5. – Vincent Hartley, 34-year-old Lancashire clerk, claims to have solved the difficult task of planting a lawn by first attaching seed to a soluble tissue paper.
The seeds are set in rows, three-eighths of an inch apart. The amateur can paper his outworn lawn, cover it with light soil and leave the rest to nature.
The paper sheets can be cut with scissors to fit curved and irregular places.
Sheets three by two feet will cost five pence to twelve pence according to the quality of the seed.
WHEELING, W. Va., March 5 (AP). – Louis A. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War, said in and interview tonight that the army had perfected an automatic landing device which eliminates the danger of fogs at airports.
Reporting “more than fifty successful landings” by this method he said:
“The pilot merely sits in the ship, keeps hands and feet off the controls, and the plane is landed by men operating the device from the ground.”
He said that he made a recent flight from Chicago to Washington in two and a half hours in an army stratosphere plane flying 368 miles an hour at 25,000 feet.
In an address here tonight at the midwinter conference of the Legion of Honor Mr. Johnson, former national commander of the American Legion, said that it was time for “those who love America” to pledge themselves anew to the “sound and healthy principles of Americanism.”
Reply #2 has couple short articles.
It’s interesting ... the gifts bestowed upon us by the post-WWI experiments in border-drawing just keep on giving, don’t they?
Sure, but back in the good old days they knew how to react to “complications” with their experiments.
Theodoric of York had the right prescription for them.
I wonder what would have happened if the Brits had just allowed the locals to sort everything out in the wake of the Ottomans. I bet it wouldn't have been pretty.
Obviously not, as we're still dealing with exactly the same complications, 70+ years later.
The fundamental “complication” I see is muzzies hating and killing each other and everyone else. That’s pretty much a constant. They are begging for violence. I suggest we cave in and give them what they want...in spades.
IIRC, part of the British motivation for intervening as they did, was that it was already "not pretty." However, I think their real motivations were much more practical.
First off, there was the Suez Canal, a primary purpose of which was strategic and colonial, in the sense of shortening Britain's route to India and its colonies on the Indian Ocean side of Africa. They had a very serious interest in ensuring that the canal zone was not endangered by whoever came out atop the "local sorting" process.
Second, Middle-Eastern oil had already become a precious commodity, and again, the British wanted to make sure that their supply of oil wasn't endangered by the wrong folks.
It's interesting to note that there was a significant political divide in Britain over which factions to support. Churchill was among those who favored the Hashemite dynasty (from which Jordanian royalty is descended). Others favored what eventually became the current crop of Saudi royalty. It's difficult to say who was right ... either way, the divergence between Arab and British/western interests was difficult to control.
Well, that's just fine ... except that it ignores a few bits of reality. For example, Middle Eastern Oil, the Suez Canal, Israel, Turkey, Africa, and conditions once again becoming ripe for the growth of Islamic fascism, which thrives under lawless conditions.
Aside from that, though, it's a swell idea.
I would back Churchill. The Jordanians are much more stable (in relative terms of course) than the Al Saud family in Arabia. The Wahabi extract of Islam that is practiced on the peninsula is rather archaic.
Possibly. Then again, we'd be looking back over 80+ years of history. Who's to say that the Jordanians wouldn't have been similarly corrupted by oil wealth and its perks?
yup, fair point.
If I may,
The key points to remember here are that by the end of the First World War, the Brits had over a million troops in the Middle East.
And that’s how they finally defeated the Ottoman Turks, after previous disasters at Galipoli and in Iraq.
(And BTW, this was ONLY even possible because of the US committment of millions of troops to France)
The Brits formed alliances with Arab leaders (remember Lawrence of Arabia), and the deal was: Arabs help Brits overthrow Ottomans, Arabs get their own countries, and the Jews get a homeland in Palestine (1917 Balfour Declaration).
That was the deal, and it held until after the war, and most British troops withdrew...
And now the Arabs decided they not only wanted the countries they’d been promised, but they wanted Palestine too. No homeland for the Jews, except maybe under Arab rulers.
The rest, as they say, is history...
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