available, so that their carrying capacity
was limited.

On the outbreak of war, the Turks, acting under the guidance of the
Germans, embarked upon a considerable programme of railway construction.
Starting from a point on the Plain of Esdraelon, El Apele, they
constructed a new line which crossed the mountains about Samaria and
reached the Plain of Sharon at Tul Keram. Thence it ran down the length
of the Coastal Plain to Beersheba, and, ultimately, to Auja in the
Desert. This railway was constructed in 1915 for the invasion of Egypt.
Into this railway was incorporated portions of the old Jaffa-Jerusalem
line, as between Ludd and "Junction Station." This was the none too
distinctive name given to the important station which was constructed at
the point where the older railway left the Plain; this now became the
junction for Jerusalem. At a later date, the Turks withdrew from Auja to
Beersheba, the line south of the latter place was removed and a new line
was constructed from near Junction Station to points just north of Gaza.

Roads in the coastal sector are good, though difficult for heavy motor
traffic after rain. In the hills, the only first-class roads were the
road running north and south along the ridge from Nablus through
Jerusalem to Beersheba, and the road west and east from Jaffa to
Jerusalem, continued eastwards through Jericho and across the Jordan to
Es Salt and Amman Station on the Hejaz Railway.

The population of Palestine is very mixed, comprising Moslems,
Christians and Jews with their various subdivisions and sects. The
Moslem inhabitants, Arabs and Syrians, have little in common with the
Turks except their religion. The Jews and the Christians groaned under
Turkish oppression. Both Jews and Christians welcomed the advent of the
British, while the Moslems accepted the situation, if not with pleasure,
at least with equanimity. The Turks themselves form no part of the
regular population. They are alien rulers, speaking a language unknown
to the people, and incapable of understanding the language of the
country. Although Palestine has been governed by Moslems for upwards of
a thousand years, it has only been annexed to the Ottoman Empire for
four centuries. More than once during that period it would have been
torn away but for the aid of the British. The government of Syria by the
Ottoman Turk had been oppressive and corrupt and marked by the
discouragement of all progress and enterprise. It was high