to the full use to which disinfecting plants were put in all
areas of the occupied territory. The virtues of bodily cleanliness
were taught, and the people were given that personal attention which
was entirely lacking under Turkish rule. It is not easy to overcome
the prejudices and cure the habits of thousands of years, but progress
is being made surely if slowly, and already there is a gratifying
improvement in the condition of the people which is patent to any
observer.

In Jerusalem an infants' welfare bureau was instituted, where
mothers were seen before and after childbirth, infants' clinics were
established, a body of health was formed, and a kitchen was opened to
provide food for babies and the poor. The nurses were mainly local
subjects who had to undergo an adequate training, and there was no one
who did not confidently predict a rapid fall in the infant mortality
rate which, to the shame of the Turkish administration, was fully a
dozen times that of the highest of English towns. The spadework
was all done by the medical staff of the Occupied Enemy Territory
Administration. The call was urgent, and though labouring under
war-time difficulties they got things going quickly and smoothly. Some
voluntary societies were assisting, and the enthusiasm of the American
Red Cross units enabled all to carry on a great and beneficent work.

CHAPTER XX

OUR CONQUERING AIRMEN

The airmen who were the eyes of the Army in Sinai and Palestine
can look back on their record as a great achievement. Enormous
difficulties were faced with stout hearts, and the Royal Flying Corps
spirit surmounted them. It was one long test of courage, endurance,
and efficiency, and so triumphantly did the airmen come through the
ordeal that General Allenby's Army may truthfully be said to have
secured as complete a mastery of the air as it did of the plains
and hills of Southern Palestine. Those of us who watched the airmen
'carrying on,' from the time when their aeroplanes were inferior to
those of the Germans in speed, climbing capacity, and other qualities
which go to make up first-class fighting machines, till the position
during the great advance when few enemy aviators dared cross our
lines, can well testify to the wonderful work our airmen performed.

With comparatively few opportunities for combat because the enemy knew
his inferiority and declined to fight unless forced, the pilots and
observers from the moment our attack was a