Who Goes and Who Stays

Martin's father stayed	Martin Higgins, top right, with the rest of his family in the camp at Maadi

                                                                                                                                   

The following announcement was promulgated as a Defence Emergency Regulation:

 

Instructions:   A number of British subjects not included in the official instructions will be making independent arrangements to spend some time in the Lebanon, Cyprus or Egypt.   Only British subjects are affected by the order, no persons of non-Palestinian nationalities being included. British Jews will not be subject to evacuation. Jewish women married to Britons are entitled to choose whether they will go or not.  Those who decline evacuation will do so at their own risk.   NAAFI  girls, members of the Army Entertainments Unit and Army Welfare Service are being allowed to remain in the country.               Excluded from the evacuation would be doctors nurses, clergymen and nuns   The evacuation is to be handled by the army while the RAF will supply a maximum number of planes.   Every effort will be made for the comfort of the evacuees with special attention to food, health and other facilities.

           

Some of those leaving, particularly the wives of policemen had been in Palestine for more than 20 years; others had been born there and had never been to England. This was the position of our family; my mother and we three children were born in Jerusalem. On the other hand many wives of men in the Army and the Government Service arrived only a few months or even weeks previously. Twenty two army families who were actually on their way to Palestine had been diverted to a port of a third country and had to re-embark for England from there.

 

The announcement  took the Palestine public unawares in spite of the build up of trouble over the previous month, and it was not very well received, least of all by the British wives who would be subject to the evacuation. Many of them had seen most of the war in the Middle East, and had lived through the worse and the action to them seemed disproportionate to the situation, especially as it was widely perceived that the moves were a precaution in case of an action by planned by the government which might not in fact be carried out. The label “non-essential” caused a certain amount of resentment.

 

It soon became clear who was to go and who could remain. The measures announced by the Government would apply to civilians and dependents of the Palestine Police, but not the Army. The Army was to  make its own arrangements, which would begin immediately, when all officers and men and their wives living privately would be required to move into barracks. The reason for the exclusion of army wives from the general evacuation and their move to their husbands’ barracks was because in most cases they had spent a long period of separation from their husbands.

 

A few teachers were being allowed to remain. Most of the teachers, however, were required to leave and this will have disastrous results for the schools for Arab pupils, as most of the teachers were drawn from overseas. Most of the schools were missionary schools and they would be forced to close. It was planned that a group of teachers would not be sent away, if possible, but would be kept nearby, for example in Trans Jordan so that they could be recalled if circumstances were to improve. The evacuation on the 3^rd of February of the teaching staff of the Jerusalem Girls College, Ehavia, for example, caused that establishment to be closed down.

 

Written notification was issued to all those who were required to leave (see Appendix A) . All wives and children of British Government officials were required to leave, but single women, or women who were Government officers and men whose services were not considered essential in the country would be requested to leave (the interpretation of this phrase, given by the government, was ‘citizens who were not essential’). British journalists were peeved to find that they had been put into this category. The  Press Association immediately decided to inform the Government that its members intended to stay and they hoped to receive the full cooperation from the Government so as to be able to fulfill their duties. The American and other non-British journalists associated themselves with this resolution.  If, however, they refused to go, then their continuing stay in Palestine would be under their own responsibility and they would be subjected to any protective measures organized, such as the concentration of personnel in various areas.

 

A meeting of businessmen in Jerusalem on the day of the announcement passed a strong resolution which they telegraphed to the Prime Minister and also to  Mr Creech Jones, Sir Stafford Cripps and Winston Churchill, protesting against the adoption, without consulting them, of what they called “a policy of scuttle, inevitably resulting in the loss of British prestige and serious damage to  British community interests and dismay among large friendly sections of all local communities”. The resolution stated that the step constituted a surrender to the terrorists’ threat to drive the British from Palestine and it was urged that evacuation should at least be optional for those who have had their homes and businesses in the country for many years  For some civilians the abrupt scramble to safety seemed panicky, undignified and unwarranted.