Ari boarded the Exodus and went up to the wheelhouse. One by one the lorries discharged the children. It took only twenty minutes to load the boat. Zev, David, Joab, and Hank Schlosberg reported that the boarding had been completed. Ari gave the order to Hank and he cast off and started the engines.
“Get to the children,” Ari said, “and tell them exactly what we are doing and what will be expected of them. Any child who feels he cannot go through with it will advise me in the wheelhouse and he will be returned to Caraolos. Explain to them that their lives are in danger if they stay.
There is to be no pressure from you or the children to induce others to remain who wish to go.”
As the Palmachniks went down to brief the children the Exodus backed into mid-harbor and dropped anchor.
In an instant the entire Kyrenia area was alive with the shriek of sirens! Ari turned a pair of field glasses on the hills and coastal road and saw dozens of British lorries and jeeps converging on Kyrenia. He laughed out loud as he saw the trucks of the late 23rd Transportation Company rushing up the hills to be abandoned. They were rushing away from Kyrenia and passed the convoy of British soldiers coming in the opposite direction.
Ari looked below him. The children on deck were calm.
The British poured into the harbor area! Lorry after lorry of soldiers erupted onto the quay. Several officers were pointing at the Exodus and shouting orders. Soldiers began racing along both arms of the sea wall and setting up machine guns and mortars at the narrow harbor opening so that if the Exodus were to try it could not get out to sea.
More lorries poured into the area. The quay was roped off and curious spectators pushed back. Ari watched the British strength grow by the moment. Inside of an hour the harbor was swarming with five hundred fully armed soldiers. A pair of torpedo boats stationed themselves outside the harbor. On the horizon Ari could see a trio of destroyers rushr ing to the scene. The sirens shrieked on! The peaceful little town was turning into an armed camp! Then tanks rumbled onto the quay and artillery replaced the machine guns and mortars guarding the harbor entrance.
Another blaze of sirens brought a car bearing Brigadier Sutherland, Caldwell, and Alistair onto the quay. Major Cooke, the area commander of Kyrenia, reported to Sutherland.
“That’s the ship out there, sir. It’s loaded with Jews all right. It can’t possibly get away.”
Sutherland studied the harbor. “You’ve got enough here to fight a Panzer division,” he said; “they must be insane on that boat. Get a public-address system hooked up right away.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If you asked me, we’d blow them out of the water,” Caldwell said.
“I didn’t ask you,” Sutherland snapped. “Cooke . .,, get this area cordoned off. Organize a boarding party. Tear gas, small arms, in case they won’t come back by themselves. Freddie, hop over to the Dome and inform headquarters I want a news blackout.”
Alistair had remained quiet and was studying the tugboat
“What do you make of it, Alistair?”
“I don’t like it, sir,” he said. “They aren’t pulling a daylight escape like this unless they have something else in mind.”
“Come now, Alistair. You’re always looking for sinister plots.”
Mark Parker pushed his way past the guards and approached the two officers.
“What’s all the noise about?” Mark asked Alistair.
The instant Alistair saw Mark he knew his suspicion was correct. “Really, Parker,” Alistair said, “do be a good sport and tell us. You know, old man, you ought to brush up on your British accent the next time you telephone me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Major.”
Brigadier Sutherland was beginning to catch on. He looked from the tug to Parker and to Alistair and he knew that the Mossad Aliyah Bet had caught him unprepared. He flushed. Major Cooke, the Kyrenia area commander, reported. “We’ll have boarding parties formed in ten minutes, sir. Two hundred men and we’ll commandeer some trawlers here to take them out.” Sutherland did not even hear him.
“Where is the loudspeaker, damn it all!”
Ten minutes later Sutherland grabbed a microphone. A silence fell over the harbor. The boarding parties stood by to go out into the middle of the harbor after the Exodus.
“Hello, out there! This is Brigadier Bruce Sutherland, the commander of Cyprus, speaking,” his voice shot out in a series of echoes. “Can you hear me out there?”
In the wheelhouse of the Exodus, Ari Ben Canaan opened his public-address system. “Hello, Sutherland,” he said, “this is Captain Caleb Moore of the 23rd Transportation Company, His Majesty’s Jewish Forces on Cyprus. You can find your lorries up at St. Hilarion.”
Sutherland turned pale. Alistair’s mouth dropped open,
“Hello, out there!” Sutherland’s voice snapped angrily. “We are going to give you ten minutes to return to dockside. If you do not we are going to send out a heavily armed boarding party and bring you back.”
“Hello, Sutherland! This is the Exodus speaking. We have three hundred and two children aboard this boat. Our engine rooms are loaded with dynamite. If one of your troops sets foot on this boat or if one round is fired from any of your guns we are going to blow ourselves up!”
At that instant Mark Parker’s story was being cabled from London to every corner of the world.
Sutherland, Alistair, and the five hundred British soldiers on the quay stood speechless as a flag was run up on the mast
of the Exodus. It was a British Union Jack and in its center
was painted a huge Nazi swastika. The battle of the Exodus was on!
CHAPTER THIRTY
EXCLUSIVE! DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH: MODEL 1946 BY AMERICAN NEWS SYNDICATE CORRESPONDENT MARK PARKER KYRENIA, CYPRUS: (ANS)
I am writing this story from Kyrenia. It is a tiny, jewel-like harbor on the northern coast of the British Crown Colony of Cyprus.
Cyprus has been rich in the pageantry of history. The island is filled with reminders of its vaunted past, from the ruins of Salamis to the cathedrals of Famagusta and Nicosia to the many castles of Crusader glory.
But none of this colorful history can match for sheer naked drama the scene that is being played at this very moment in this quiet, unknown resort town. For some months Cyprus has been a detention center for Jewish refugees who have tried to run the British blockade into Palestine.
Today, three hundred children between the ages of ten and seventeen escaped the British camp at Caraolos in an as-yet-undetermined manner, and fled across the island to Kyrenia where a converted salvage tug of about two hundred tons awaited them for a dash to Palestine.
Almost all the escapees were graduates of German concentration and extermination camps. The salvage tug, fittingly renamed the Exodus, was discovered by British Intelligence before it could get out of the harbor.
With its three hundred refugees the ship is sitting at anchor in the center of the harbor, which measures a mere three hundred yards in diameter, and has defied all British efforts to have the children debark and return to Caraolos.
A spokesman for the Exodus has announced that the hold of the boat is filled with dynamite. The children have joined in a suicide pact and they will blow up the boat if the British attempt to board her.
LONDON
General Sir Clarence Tevor-Browne dropped the copy of the newspaper on his desk. He lit a cigar and studied the reports, Mark Parker’s story was creating a sensation not only in Europe but in the United States. Tevor-Browne had a request
for instructions from Sutherland, who refused to take the responsibility of issuing an order to board the Exodus.