CO 733/478/1
News Chronicle, 28 Jan 1947
The highest profile of the many Zionist kidnappings in Palestine.
See:
State of Terror, 177-178; 192-193
On the 27th of January, 1947, Judge Ralph Windham was abducted right from his court room in Tel Aviv by eight armed Irgun operatives, four of whom were listening to the proceedings inside the court.
Telephone communications had been severed, and all other offices in the building were held under the gun.
It is at this point that British officials publicly acknowledged that no one in Palestine was safe against Zionist terror, and that British women, children, and nonessential civilian personnel must be evacuated. Three days later, High Commissioner Cunningham ordered this evacuation.
The British stopped the execution of a convicted Irgun terrorist in order to gain the release of the kidnapped men.
CO 733/478/1
Here, Creech Jones answers to Churchill's concern that the execution of Dov Gruner was put on "hold" in order to secure the release of the two kidnapped men.
Jones assures Churchill that this was not the case; but other documents confirm what Churchill appears to assume — that it was.
See:
State of Terror, 192-193