File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎131v] (271/834)

On March 22, the Franciscan Cnstode— i.e. the head of the
Administration of the Franciscan Mission at Jerusalem—received
orders from the Vatican to recognise the French religious protec
torate over the (Catholic) Holy Places, which he had previously
declined to do. On March 23, the Solemn Entry into the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre was attended by M. Picot and the French
Mission, to whom the full customary honours were paid.
2?id April, 1918.
Agricultural conditions continue to be very favourable on
the lower ground, the crops in the Mejdel district being judged
the most promising seen for seven years. Four thousand kilos, of
potato-seed have been served out. As the rainy period draws to
an end, the irrigation of the Jaffa fruit groves b'gins to give
concern. This is done from wells, mostly fitted with pumps,
worked by oil fuel. On the application of the growers, a con
siderable supply of oil is being procured from Egypt and will be
distributed by the O.E.T. Administration, according to acreage
and engine power : but, of course, against payment. Enquiry is
.now being made into the needs of the several plantations.
Collection of taxes on crops has begun, wholesale adjustment
having to be made in many cases where the estimated area under
cultivation, as returned by a village at sowing time, proves to be
greatly below the truth. The mere fact of taxation being
enforced at all is undoubtedly a disappointment to the ignorant
peasants who had heard that nothing of the kind would be
exacted for five years. This feeling will not be lessened by the
decision to collect also dues allocated to the Ottoman Debt.
Some tax-collectors, it is reported, have already been attempting
to make the illicit gains associated with publicans from time
immemorial in the east. The method adopted is to exchange the
Egyptian money received into metalliks, purchased at a heavy
discount, and pay the latter into the banks at par. Measures are
being taken to stop this ingenious traffic. Another little game
of exchange has been detected at Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza.
Arabs from Akaba have been purchasing Turkish Lira notes
against British gold at a rate of eight or nine to the pound
sterling : these are re-sold at Akaba (by, it is said, the Reis el-
Beladiyah) to a Jeddah dealer at a small profit; and thence, no
doubt, they are to find their way, at a further profit, to some
point where they are still current.
The distribution of food by the Religious Communities at
Jerusalem is reported to be working better, and improving
steadily. There have been no fresh cases of tyhpus.
The recent occupation and subsequent evacuation of Salt
has thrown on our hands some 1,500 Armenian refugees, part of
the 7,000 reported to survive in the southern trans-Jordan lands
from those driven down in 1915. Armenians are proving rather