With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign Part 14

The natural frontiers of Palestine are the Mediterranean on the West, the Syrian Desert to the East, the Arabian and Sinai Deserts to the South, and the difficult mountain pa.s.ses of the Lebanon to the North.

Next to the sea no better frontiers can be found than mountain pa.s.ses and deserts.

It will therefore be seen that if Palestine is given anything like her Biblical frontiers, troops could readily be placed on any threatened point and practically make the invasion of the country an impossibility.

As a matter of fact, a small national army in Palestine would make that country almost as impregnable as are the Cantons of Switzerland.

It is of the first importance to British interests to further the creation of a friendly State in Palestine which would act as a buffer between herself and any aggressive neighbour to the North or East.

The greatest soldiers and statesmen of the past realised that in order to obtain dominion over the East it was first of all necessary to secure the friendly co-operation of the people of Palestine.

Alexander the Great knew what a help to his Greek Empire of the East the Jews would be. He therefore showed them the greatest friends.h.i.+p, and allowed them every possible civil and religious liberty.

Later on, when Palestine came under the dominion of Rome, Julius Caesar, the first and greatest of the Roman Emperors, realized so fully that without a friendly Palestine he could not hope to overthrow the Parthians and Persians to the eastward that in order to obtain the friends.h.i.+p of the Jews he freed Palestine from tribute, withdrew his legions from the country, exempted Jews from serving in the army, and allowed them full liberty of conscience, not only in Palestine but throughout the entire Empire.

Coming down to more modern times, we find Napoleon following as far as possible the policy of his two great predecessors. At one time, early in his career, he made an effort to restore the Jews to Palestine, and he would probably have been successful in his scheme, and made himself ruler of a French Empire in the East, only, unfortunately for him, Nelson, at the battle of the Nile, deprived him of the command of the sea. Nothing daunted by this, however, he marched his soldiers through the Sinai Desert and subdued practically all Palestine, but, owing to British sea-power, we were able to throw troops into Acre, and by his defeat at the famous siege of that place, Napoleon's eastern ambitions came to an end.

Great as was the importance of a friendly Palestine to the Greek and Roman Empires, a friendly Palestine to-day is of immensely more importance to the peace and prosperity of the British Empire. Our statesmen were, therefore, but following in the footsteps of the greatest men of the past when they issued the world-famous Balfour Declaration pledging England to use her best endeavours to establish a National Home in Palestine for the Jewish people.

It is useless to deny the fact that England is not nearly so popular in the Near East as she was thirty or forty years ago. The Egyptians have shown us pretty clearly that they have no love for us, while it is very evident that the Arab kingdoms have ambitions of their own in those regions, which might prove a very grave menace to our eastern communications. Naturally, Turkey--or what is left of that once great Empire--realises that it is to England that she owes her downfall, while the policy of Greece, at the moment at all events, also runs counter to our own.

It is very necessary, therefore, that Palestine should be colonised by a people whose interests will go hand in hand with those of England and who will readily grasp at union with the British Empire.

The Jews are the only people who fulfil these conditions. They have ever looked upon Palestine as their natural heritage, and although they were ruthlessly torn from it some two thousand years ago, yet through all the terrible years of their exile they have never lost the imperishable hope of a return to the Land of Promise. They have always had a friendly feeling for this country, and if England now deals justly with Israel, this friendly feeling will be increased tenfold. They would be quite unable to stand alone in Palestine for some time, and therefore their one aim and object would be to co-operate wholeheartedly with the Power that had not only reinstated them in their own land, but whose strong arm was adequate to protect them from the encroachments and aggressions of neighbouring states.

It will undoubtedly be their policy to walk hand in hand with England.

British and Jewish interests are so similar and so interwoven that they fit into each other as the hand does the glove.

In short, when the long-expected Restoration of the Jewish people to the Promised Land becomes an accomplished fact, then the vital interests of the British Empire in those regions will be una.s.sailable.

CHAPTER XX.

HOSPITAL SCANDAL AT JERUSALEM.

It will be remembered that I had been ordered to proceed to Nimrin to intercept any Turks who might attempt to break through from the South.

When I reached my camp I found about 1,500 Turkish prisoners already concentrated there; hundreds of them were too feeble and ill to be marched further, but about 1,000 were considered fit enough to go on, and these were escorted by Captain Harris and a small detachment of the 38th to Jericho, and, after a short rest there, on to the prisoners'

cage at Ludd.

On October 1st Battalion Headquarters moved to Jerusalem, and on the way thither it was pitiful to see these unfortunate Turkish prisoners, starving and sick, crawling at a snail's pace up the steep ascent from the Jordan Valley through the Judaean Wilderness; many fell by the way and died from sheer exhaustion. The medical arrangements were quite inadequate to cope even with our own sick, who now began to feel the effect of the poisonous Mellahah, and went down daily by scores.

Our new camp was situated about a mile outside the walls of Jerusalem to the southward, on the Hebron road, and by the time we reached it hundreds of the men, exhausted and worn out from the effects of their terrible experiences in the Jordan Valley, were ill with malaria; practically every officer also was struck down with the same fell disease. I myself had been far from well throughout the recent operations, but I managed, with the skilful aid of our Medical Officer, Captain Haldin Davis, to keep going.

Unfortunately, just before we arrived in Camp, there had been a terrific downpour of rain, which had thoroughly soaked the ground, and as there was no hospital accommodation available, the unfortunate patients had to lie on the wet earth, with only one blanket, and no medical comforts or treatment. There were no nurses or orderlies, and the men received no attention of any kind, except such as could be given by those of their comrades who were still able to move about. As a result of this lamentable state of affairs, which could easily have been prevented by a little forethought on the part of the Staff, many died of malaria and pneumonia, and one poor fellow killed himself by cutting his throat in his delirium.

Captain Davis had been taken ill at Nimrin, and removed in an ambulance to hospital. I made urgent appeals for another doctor, but without avail, and it was nearly a whole year before the authorities thought it worth while to provide a medical officer for this Jewish Battalion, which at one time was almost 2,000 strong. Not only were the Jewish troops unable to find hospital accommodation, but hundreds of others also--British, Australian, New Zealand, and Indian.

The whole thing was a grave scandal, which must be laid at the door of the responsible muddlers.

It was distressing to see the German Hospice on the Mount of Olives, a building which was absolutely ideal for a Hospital, used for Staff purposes, while the sick and wounded men, who had suffered all the hards.h.i.+ps and done all the fighting, were allowed to lie about on the wet ground in and around Jerusalem. The muddle was not the fault of the few medical men on the spot, for they worked like slaves. The whole of the blame for this wanton lack of organisation rests with G.H.Q. I had written in the previous July recommending that hospital accommodation should be provided at Jerusalem for Jewish troops, but no notice was taken of my recommendation. If this had been acted upon many deaths and much unnecessary suffering would have been avoided.

In my own battalion we lost over a score of men in this way, who, I am convinced, would not have died if proper hospital arrangements had been available, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Captain Salaman, R.A.M.C., with the 39th Battalion, to whom I turned over all my sick, the death-roll would in all probability have been much greater.

The battalion numbers, owing to the hards.h.i.+ps we had undergone, were reduced from a strength of nearly 1,000 to about six officers and less than 150 men.

I can ill.u.s.trate the pettiness of at least some of the G.H.Q. Staff no better than by giving the following correspondence.

It will be remembered that I had reported to General Allenby in the Jordan Valley that the medical arrangements were not good. This apparently displeased some of the Staff, for they hunted up a private telegram which I had sent some months previously (on July 18th), addressed to the Secretary, Medical Committee, Jewish Regiment, London, in which I had said:--

"You should see Sir Nevil Macready. Am strongly advising base to be at Jerusalem."

On discovering this mare's nest the D.A.G. sent the following memo. to General Chaytor:--

A. 13780. TO GENERAL CHAYTOR, Subject: Medical Headquarters, Arrangements for Chaytor's Force.

Jewish Battalions.

Please find attached herewith a copy of a telegram purporting to have been sent by the Officer Commanding 38th Royal Fusiliers.

Please call upon this officer to furnish his reasons and such explanation as he may have to offer for advising a course of action which concerns the C.-in-C. under whom he is serving, without reference to or obtaining permission from the C.-in-C.

(Signed)--MAJOR-GENERAL, _D.A.G._ G.H.Q. 1st Echelon, 17th September, 1918.

All this ado because I had simply sent a private telegram to the Jewish Hospital Committee months before to say I was advising a Hospital base to be set up at Jerusalem. This telegram was in reply to a cable from the Committee in London asking if special hospital accommodation could be provided for Jewish soldiers.

From the date on this memorandum it will be seen that G.H.Q. thought fit to send out such a communication on the very eve of the great advance.

It would have been much more useful if the Deputy Adjutant General had devoted his attention to providing Hospital accommodation for the unfortunate sick and wounded, instead of choosing such a moment to harry troops in the field engaged in a great offensive, the success of which meant everything to England.

There was no excuse whatever for this memo., because on the 26th June, 1918, immediately on receipt of the cable from the Hospital Committee, I had sent the following to G.H.Q.:--

38th Battn. R.F.

No. A/412/1/3.

31st Inf. Brg. No. 57d.

10th Divn. No. 1324A.

XX. Corps No. P.C.A. 563.

G.H.Q. 1st Echelon No. a/13780.

HEAD Q. 31st. Inf. Brg.

I have received the following cable from the Hon. Sec. Medical Committee for Jewish Units:

"The Matron-in-Chief Q.A.I.M.N.S. sanctions Jewish Nursing Staff for Service in Palestine. Can you arrange Jewish wards in existing military Hospitals or other special provision?

"Committee awaits reply."

With reference to the above cable I have to state that when I was organising the Jewish Units in England, I had recommended a Jewish Base Hospital, and the A.G., Sir N. Macready, had sanctioned this, and given instructions, after I left England for Egypt, that it was to be based at Plymouth.

The A.G. probably misunderstood my intention when he based it at Plymouth, as I had intended that the Hospital should be based in Egypt or Palestine. I therefore wrote home and suggested that there was no need for a special Jewish Hospital in England.

I have no doubt that the above cable is the result of some negotiation with the A.G., and I would suggest that this matter be referred to G.H.Q., 1st Echelon, so that they may get into touch with the W.O., and find out what has been decided upon in this question. _Personally I would recommend that the Hospital should be at Jerusalem_.