Much going on in the world, this last day of March in 1947.
Beginning in Bombay, India. Forty persons were killed and 137 were wounded Sunday in communal riots that broke out in four different sections of Bombay the provincial director of information announced Sunday. Similar riots occurred in greater Calcutta and Cawnpore causing at least nine deaths and more than 50 other casualties. The Bombay disorders between Hindus and Moslems were brought under control only after police fired into crowds in various sections of the city on 19 occasions. A curfew was put into effect to clear the streets of the rioters. A. A. Caffin Bombay chief of police said the local military organization had been ordered to stand by for duty later Monday when the curfew is lifted. Newsmen touring Bombay streets saw Caffin’s police riflemen and Lathi (lolg staff) squads move into areas where screaming rioters abandoned their activities and fled leaving only the litter of the disorders under the light of overhead gas lights. Rumors as to the cause of the fighting all of them unconfirmed swept the city immediately. The report receiving the most circulation was that a funeral procession of one community had attacked a house of worship of another but the stories varied as to which community had made the attack.
Meanwhile, Explosions and flames swept the Haifa waterfront today as British troops transferred to Cyprus-bound transports the first of nearly 1600 uncertified Jewish immigrants rescued a few hours earlier from a distressed refugee ship. The schooner, Moledeth, formerly called the San Felipe, sent out a distress message. British naval vessels, which had been shadowing the Moledeth through the eastern Mediterranean, raced to the scene and removed 750 of the passengers crammed aboard the schooner’s decks. This action was believed to ‘have averted a major disaster. Jews in Haifa were aware that the Moledeth was in trouble. When the distress message was intercepted by radio receivers there. 60,000 Jewish residents blacked out their section of the port city as a gesture of sympathy. British troops immediately took up defense positions awaiting the arrival of the refugees. The immigrants close brush with death came yesterday 30 miles off the Palestine coast when the 700-ton- schooner seeking to bring them to Palestine developed a dangerous list and began taking water.
And finally – A walkout of 4,000 Dortmund coal miners injected a new note of seriousness in Ruhr food shortage marked so far by sympathy demonstrations, on the part of the British occupiers. Officials watched closely whether Ruhr’s other 250,000 miners might fall into step with the Dortmund men, who were cheered by their wives as they left the pits while 2,000 hunger marchers paraded the downtown streets and sent deputations to British and German municipal authorities.
And that’s how the world was spinning, this last day of March in 1947 as presented by Radio Éireann in Dublin.
