Police today arrested three leaders of the Arab general strike against Jews, now in its third week, charging two of them with incitement to rebellion.
An attempt was made by an Arab mob to rescue Hassan Sidky el Dajany, prominent Moslem lawyer and leader of the Arab Defense Party, the first to be arrested. The mob waylaid police as they were taking Dajany to the station. Twenty constables armed with clubs charged and dispersed the would-be rescuers.
The other arrested Arabs, seized after being searched by the police, are Salakh Abdou, a lawyer, and Moghannem Elias Moughanem, a Christian Arab and one of the leaders of the Arab Defense Party.
Charges of incitement to rebellion were lodged against Abdou and Dajany for issuing a signed appeal to Arabs not to pay taxes, the latest measure decided upon by the Arab National Strike Committee to press the general strike.
Abdou’s arrest was said to be a direct result of the warning given by High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope earlier in the day to a delegation of Arab leaders that strong measures would be used if Arabs did not halt their campaign of terrorism against Jews.
It was revealed that Sir Arthur had also warned Arab leaders, during a ten-minute audience he gave them this morning, not to proceed to Jaffa for a scheduled meeting where plans were to be laid for extending the Arab strike to include Arab Government employes.
He was reported to have told the Arab leaders they could still bring their grievances to the Colonial Office in London, to be aired at a conference to which they had been invited last month by J. H. Thomas, Colonial Secretary.
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