British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 605

CHAPTER XV.

mine with which, apparently, they planned to destroy any other police who might visit the scene. Fortunately the person controlling this mine from another adjacent roof was observed by a resident, took fright and disappeared before other police arrived. The motive of this outrage appears to have been to intimidate the police of Tel Aviv as a whole into dropping a case of murder then pending against two members of the Group and to kill the Jewish Deputy Superintendent of Police who had been active in rounding up members of the Group in Tel Aviv.

54. By the 10th February, 1942, in the course of a drive by the Police, two important members had been shot dead resisting arrest, three were imprisoned for criminal offences, seventy, including five women, were detained under the Emergency Regulations and seven were placed under house arrest. In addition, two hiding places were discovered, arms, ammunition and a duplicating machine were seized and, on the 12th February, 1942, Abraham Stern himself was traced to a flat in Tel Aviv and shot dead by police while attempting to escape.

55. As a result of this vigorous police action the Group was reduced to numbers sufficient only to keep its ideology alive, and from the spring of 1942 until November, 1943, little or nothing was heard of it. On the night of the 31st October-1st November, 1943, however, twenty important members detained at Latrun managed to escape. In December the same year two other leaders serving criminal sentences in Jerusalem also managed to break out. These escapes were sufficient to infuse new life into the Group and by February the following year it recommenced terrorism with attacks on Government officers. The new wave of terror continued almost throughout 1944 and included the attempt on the life of The High Commissioner in August of that year. It reached its climax with the murder of Lord Moyne in Cairo on November 6th. This act, which was met with strong disapprobation by the Jewish community including both of the larger, illegal organizations, initiated a further period of outward quiescence for the Group; no further outrages transpired until the night of the 31st October 1st November, 1945, when its members attacked the Consolidated Refineries installation at Haifa.

56. Early in 1945 reports stated that the Group numbered between 150 and 200, but recent information indicates that these are being reinforced by new immigrants. There is evidence that the Stern Group have a number of youthful followers who are employed on such tasks as carrying messages, posting and distributing leaflets, etc. A booklet, Hama'as (The Deed), claiming to

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