Fury over honoured killers

Paul Callan, Daily Mirror, 27 June 1975

WHILE Israelis are honouring the Stern Gang killers (Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Bet-Zuri) at least one man, Maj. Andrew Hughes Onslow, is angered - particularly by the tribute paid by a UN Guard of Honour when the killers' remains were handed over by the Egyptians on Tuesday.

Major Hughes Onslow was present when the gunmen killed Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in Egypt, in Cairo in 1944.

“I was ADC to Lord Moyne, and I got out or the car to open the front door when the two men came up. The chauffeur was walking round the car to let Lord Moyne out when one gunman pulled open the car door and shot Lord Moyne. The second man came up and shot the chauffeur.

“I gave chase, but they jumped onto bicycles. I was able to stop an Egyptian policeman on a motor cycle, and although they shot at him he was able overcome them.”

As the principle witness, Major Hughes Onslow became a marked man and was sent, for safety, first to Aden and then to Khartoum. The gunmen were tried by the Egyptians and hanged.

“I don't wish to become a marked man again,” Major Hughes Onslow told me from his home in Berkshire yesterday, “but I think it is absolutely appalling that the United Nations should provide a Guard of Honour for two assassins.

“No doubt Lord Moyne could have been regarded as a target for political assassination, but the shooting of the chauffeur was pure murder.”

At the time of the killing the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Dr. J. H. Hertz, described the assassination as “a most detestable crime in the eyes of Jews.”

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