ined joy cried out, 'Hurrah
for England.'

The deplorable lot of the people had been made harder by profiteering
officers. Those who had money had to part with it for Turkish paper.
The Turkish note was depreciated to about one-fifth of its face value.
German officers traded in the notes for gold, sent the notes
to Germany where, by a financial arrangement concluded between
Constantinople and Berlin, they were accepted at face value. The
German officer and soldier got richer the more they forced Turkish
paper down. Turkish officers bought considerable supplies of wheat and
flour from military depots, the cost being debited against their pay
which was paid in paper. They then sold the goods for gold. That
accounted for the high prices of foodstuffs, the price in gold being
taken for the market valuation.

In the middle of November when there was a prospect of the Turks
evacuating Jerusalem, the officers sold out their stocks of provisions
and prices became less prohibitive, but they rose again quickly when
it was decided to defend the City, and the cost of food mounted to
almost famine prices. The Turks by selling for gold that which was
bought for paper, rechanging gold for paper at their own prices,
made huge profits and caused a heavy depreciation of the note at the
expense of the population. Grain was brought from the district east of
the Dead Sea, but none of it found its way to civilian mouths except
through the extortionate channel provided by officers. Yet when we got
into Jerusalem there were people with small stocks of flour who were
willing to make flat loaves of unleavened bread for sale to our
troops. The soldiers had been living for weeks on hard biscuit and
bully beef, and many were willing to pay a shilling for a small cake
of bread. They did not know that the stock of flour in the town was
desperately low and that by buying this bread they were almost taking
it out of the mouths of the poor. Some traders were so keen on getting
good money, not paper, that they tried to do business on this footing,
looking to the British Army to come to the aid of the people. The Army
soon put a stop to this trade and the troops were prohibited
from buying bread in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. As it was, the
Quarter-master-General's branch had to send a large quantity of
foodstuffs into the towns, and this was done at a time when it was a
most anxious task to provision the troops. Those were very trying days
for the supply