WOMEN STRIPPED OF RINGS

Husbands Thrown Overboard to Drown Before Eyes of Helpless Families When They Protest Against Brutalities of Harbor Boatmen and Police—Further Atrocities Are Feared.

Chicago, Dec. 22 — The expulsion of Jews from Jaffa was accompanied by many acts of barbarism and robbery, according to a cablegram received today from Cairo, Egypt. The message says that 600 refugee Jews from Jaffa have just arrived at Alexandria on the Italian steamer Vicenzo Florio, and adds:

Thursday afternoon Bedouin police raided the Ghetto (at Jaffa), and arrested 1,600 persons and drove them, at the point of the bayonet, to the quay. There the Florio was forced to receive as many of them as could be crowded aboard.

Harbor Rang With Shrieks.

Scenes attending this operation were heartrending. It was after nightfall and harbor police and boatmen stole all the watches and money the refugees were carrying to the ship. They tore rings from the fingers and even earrings from the ears of women and girls, and the harbor rang with shrieks and frantic pleas. Children were separated from parents and husbands from wives.

Several of the men, resenting the brutalities to their wives, were thrown overboard by boatmen and drowned before the eyes of the women.

Fearful for Fate of Others.

The old Hotel Metropole at Alexandria and other hotels have been hired for the refugees by several wealthy Jews of all nationalities. Many of the refugees are nearly mad with apprehension for the fate of thousands of relatives and friends for whom there was no room aboard the Florio.

It is feared that this is only the beginning of Turkish atrocities. There are 25,000 or more peaceful Russian Jews in Palestine.

Original Source

December 23, 1914 | © The Washington Post

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