It was no secret that the Haganah had been smuggling arms into the country ever since the riots in 1929 and the discovery of the shipment gave credence to the claim that the Jews of Palestine were arming on a large scale for an eventual confrontation to take control of Palestine. Since 1929 the Haganah had sent representatives to Belgium, France and Italy to purchase weapons which were often smuggled into Palestine in crates and luggage. A sharp sense of danger was thus derived from the perception that the Zionist movement was on the road to attaining the military capacity to establish its state.