Pipes & Yaups

On one side of Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, sole remnant of Solomon's Temple, and holiest place in the world of Jewry, several thousand ululating Jews, of both sexes, gathered last week. Separating Jews from Jewesses, as it is ordained, was a large screen. They were celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

On the other side of the Wall were many Moslems, who now own the Wall. They were vexed by the wailing prayers of the Jews. In fact, they threatened to stone them.

A troop of Anglo-Arab police perceiving the imminence of Moslem brickbats and desirous that the Day of Atonement should not become a day of stonement, tried to disperse the Jewish ululators.

They, thinking that the police meant to take away the holy screen dividing Jews from Jewesses, protested. Their ululations increased. They screeched, they snorted, they piped. They yauped. Several were belabored, dragged on the ground by the police.

Thereafter worship ceased, indignation meetings met. However, the National Council of Palestine Jews succeeded in quieting the outraged worshippers, by declaring that it would beseech the League of Nations to restore the Wailing Wall from Moslem to Jewish ownership.

None the less, Jewish mobs adopted so truculent an attitude that H. C. Luke, Acting British High Commissioner of Palestine, felt obliged to cancel a reception planned in honor of officers from the world famed British battleship Royal Oak.*

*The Royal Oak affair (TIME, March 26 to April 16) climaxed in the demotion of her Captain, Kenneth G. B. Dewar, and her Commander Henry M. Daniel, because they had rebuked their superior Admiral, contrary to the rules of discipline, for using "vile and insulting language." Commander Daniel capitalized his notoriety by becoming a highly paid feature writer for the London Daily Mail. Captain Dewar, no capitalizer, suffered his demotion silently until last week, when he was promoted to be captain of the battle cruiser Tiger, Public sympathy and the potency of the press are responsible for Captain Dewar's vindication, and it is even rumored that he will shortly be advanced to the rank of Rear Admiral.