It was a memorable night (the Ides of March) when this final contest took place. Excitement and feeling ran very high round the ring, and there was some magnificent fighting on both sides. In the end it was found that the Jewish Battalion had tied for victory with the Australians. A decision, however, was given against us, on the grounds that we had not entered an officer of the battalion in the team. As a matter of fact, I _had_ entered an officer of the battalion with the teams, but the judge (who was a British General, not an Australian) said that my team officer was only "attached" to the 38th for duty, and therefore could not be claimed as belonging to the battalion. Of course practically every officer in the battalion was only "attached" for duty, but there--I suppose it really would not have been the "right thing" for one Jewish Battalion to have defeated the whole of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force! In football the men were almost equally good, and we were good runners-up for the Championship of Palestine. In cricket also--that essentially English game--the battalion acquitted itself most creditably under Captain Pope's tuition, defeating all comers in the Bir Salem matches, with the exception of the Flying Corps; while our Americans were, of course, unrivalled at base ball, at which they were real experts. They often gave exhibitions of their skill, to the great delight of all those who had never before seen the game played. Our Concert Party was also still well to the fore, and easily took first place in Palestine--its only possible rival being that of the 39th Battalion. I had only got to let it be known that Tchaikov--our first violinist--would give a performance to draw a crowd big enough to pack our concert tent four times over. In the end a covetous man succeeded in wheedling Tchaikov away from us. Colonel Storrs, the Governor of Jerusalem, begged him from me so persuasively that I could not refuse him, more especially as it was to Tchaikov's advantage to settle in the Holy City, where he took up the post of Director of the School of Music. CHAPTER XXVII. BIR SALEM--AN EXCITING RACE. Early in May we were transferred from Rafa to Bir Salem. The advance party moved on the 6th, and on the 10th the Battalion Headquarters followed, and took over duties from the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, which was then sent to Haifa. We were replaced at Rafa by the 40th (Jewish) Battalion Royal Fusiliers, which was now composed mainly of the Palestinian youths recruited by Major James de Rothschild and Lieutenant Lipsey. For a time they were commanded by Lieut.-Colonel F. D. Samuel D.S.O., but he left for England while the battalion was doing garrison duty at Haifa.