11th & 12th January, 1948 - A Bad Lad and Reform School Palestine-style, and some news of very imminent transfer.

Built on the site of a Crusaders' fortress
 the citadel was converted to government
offices and a prison during the British Mandate
source: http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/AcreCitadel.html

Sunday, 11^th January, 1948

This morning I went to Acre on an escort duty.  We had first to take a boy to the remand home there.  The boy had been convicted some time ago and had been granted ten days leave over the recent Moslem feast period.  He had failed to return to the school and in the meantime committed a further offence.  He has now been sentenced to two periods of two years to run concurrently.  At the school the principle told me he is a bad lad and fears that two years will not improve him a great deal even under the training he will receive there.  At the school they are only punished in as much as they are under supervision and away from home.  For a boy who has committed only a minor offence the school is good institution as there he will receive much better food and treatment than in the majority of cases he would receive at home.  Also he is taught a trade, a thing he could not hope for under the normal course of affairs.  His schooling is more intensified and the discipline though it probably seems hard to him now will be of untold value to him when he goes out into the world to earn his living.  Short periods in such a school are of little avail as it is only with constant care and attention over a long period can he benefit.

Monday, 12^th January, 1948

Yesterday morning, while I was on escort to Acre, a case of Armed Robbery was reported to the Station from Tubas Police Station.  Four men in a lorry had been stopped by two armed men and property of total value £P47 was stolen from them.  Only one accuse actually came near to the complainants but the other shouted to a witness.  On the evidence of the witness two men have been arrested.  On searching the houses of the accused persons a packet of tea was recovered, adding to the evidence arraigned against them.

Today a case of Attempted Murder occurred in a nearby village.  The complainant

apparently owes the accused a considerable sum of money & refuses to pay his debt.  The accused had an argument with the complainant and fired a rifle at him wounding him seriously in the shoulder, at the base of his neck.

At five this evening I was in the throws (sic) of reports to be submitted on these cases when the Sergeant came rushing into the office.  He informed me that the whole of the single foot men in Nablus had to be packed ready to transfer to Jerusalem at 8am tomorrow.  Inspector Josef Amer came in and I handed over my section of the “I” Branch in a quarter of an hour so the chaos which will follow, I dare not think about.