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 unassailable. 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 Judæan 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.