Page 147 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

An addendum to the capture of the National Institutions Building and to the blaming of the Jewish Agency with seditious activities was expressed in the Jerusalem English-language newspaper "Palestine Post" about a week after evacuation of the building. In an article published by Walter Eytan, from the Jewish Agency's Press Office, he contradicted the British report as was published in the important London newspaper "Times," according to which the searches exposed the existence of the Jewish Agency's news service, which regularly examines the entire Middle East. From the reporting, one might understand that this was an espionage organization.
"If we assume that the news item is correct," wrote Eytan, "both the authorities and the public know that the Agency has a news service and the 'Times' itself has written about it in positive terms just recently." Eytan later went on to describe the series of intelligence cooperative efforts between the Jewish Agency and the Mandate Government during World War II. He revealed that there was a joint news office in Haifa of the Agency and the British Army, which collected critical information on enemy targets in Europe from Olim who came to the Land of Israel, and that this information assisted the British in planning the bombing of enemy targets. The cooperation between the sides was extensive and fertile, particularly during struggle and war against French Vichy rule in Syria and Lebanon.
Mr. Eytan noted that it was only recently that the authorities contacted the Jewish Agency's Political Department and requested information on the happenings in the countries of the Middle East. He emphasized: "The material that has reached the Jewish Agency from the news services has never been used against the Mandate Government." He ended his statements with: "There is therefore no justification for these publications, as if it was discovered just now that the Jewish Agency has an espionage service whose existence was unknown to the government."
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