British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 61. Historical Summary: April, 1941, The period of political Dormancy during the Early Years of the World War.

CHAPTER II.
on board, and on 20th November the decision to deport these Jews, together with others who might arrive in the future, was announced officially. The announcement stated that deportation was necessitated partly on account of existing labour conditions in Palestine and partly as a war measure to guarantee against the possible infiltration of persons who might impede Allied military activities in the Near East. Arrangements were accordingly made for the transfer of the "Pacific" and "Milos" passengers to Mauritius on the S.S. "Patria", then in Haifa harbour. In the meantime a third ship, the "Atlantic", was approaching Palestine with a further complement of 1, 783 Jews intending to enter Palestine illegally. The "Atlantic" arrived at Haifa on the 24th November and arrangements were made for the transfer to the "Patria" of such part of the passengers as could be accommodated on the latter ship. The "Patria", however, was scuttled at her moorings in Haifa harbour by an explosion in the morning of the 25th November and sank in a quarter of an hour with loss of life to 252 Jewish illegal immigrants and British police personnel. The commission of enquiry appointed to enquire into the circumstances found that the damage to the "Patria" had been committed by Jewish sympathisers ashore, with the co-operation of at least one person on board the ship. On 4th December the Palestine Government announced that it was not proposed to deport the survivors of the "Patria" disaster. The newly arrived illegal immigrants, other than those involved in the "Patria" disaster, were transferred to Mauritius on 9th December. (They returned to Palestine in 1945). There followed a campaign of agitation by the Jewish Agency "directed, not against His Majesty's Government, but against the Palestine Government and the High Commissioner in particular, and on 10th December the Government immigration offices at Haifa were sabotaged by bombs in protest against the deportations.

1941.

In March, 1941, a further 793 illegal immigrants arrived in the S.S. "Darien" and were detained in Palestine.

April, 1941.

The German gains in the Balkans, Cyrenaica and Iraq during the spring and early summer had an unsettling effect on both Jews and Arabs and local politics were eclipsed during the next few months by world events and in particular by the external threat to Palestine. Both Arab and Jewish recruiting, which had boon

Page 61