Days of Weeping

To the British Military Court in Jerusalem last week came Eliahu Sacharoff. The charge: illegal possession of a bullet. Legally he was allowed twelve. Thirteen were found. The sentence: seven years' imprisonment.

To a British civilian magistrate in Jerusalem 48 hours later came an Arab. The charge: illegal possession of a rifle plus 86 bullets. The sentence: six months' imprisonment.

Jewish resentment soared. Every Jew in Palestine remembered last month's trial in Jerusalem of Taxi Driver Abraham Rachlin and Labor Leader Leib Sirkin. The charge: illegal possession of 300 stolen rifles and 105,000 rounds of ammunition. The sentence: seven years' imprisonment for Rachlin, ten for Sirkin.*

Issues on Trial. Cabled TIME Correspondent Fillmore Calhoun, who attended the September trial:

"Men were on trial ... but when the Government prosecutor asked for a verdict of guilty, his finger pointed to deeper issues. The ghost on the witness stand was Zionism with its Western dynamics, its strengths, its weaknesses, and its overtones of sorrow and terrorism. . . .

"For good or evil, to believe or not to believe, the charge in effect was that modern Jewry, or at least a powerful segment of it, was conspiring to arm an illegal army variously estimated to number from 30,000 to 80,000 or more trained fighting men. . . .

"This is a situation where emotions and beliefs are intense. Here is no neutral ground. The day of weeping and of bloodshed has not yet passed in this ancient land."

* British reason for Sacharoff 's severe sentence: his extra bullet was of a type similar to those allegedly possessed by Rachlin and Sirkin.

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