File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎142v] (293/834)

— 126 —
either downtrodden or underfed. But the great inajot ity belong
to a very poor class, which possessed little more than do the
rank and file o£ a Bedouin tribe. Of what they did possess,
however, they have been able to bring away virtually nothing,
their substance having consisted almost entirely in the house
they lived in and the land they tilled
' Their lot is unfortunate ; but those, who have had to care
for them thus far in Jerusalem, have been surprised by the
small case they make of it. Obviously they do not see them-
gpjygg quite as we see them. Apart from the fact, to which they
bear witness, that they include a proportion of habitually
indigent families which welcome, rather than otherwise, the
chance of living on charity in a fatter land, and intended in any
case to migrate into British Occupied Territory, the great
majority belong to a population which has settled comparatively
recently and still retains nomadic habits, such as tenting during
the hot months. People accustomed to the annual ycnla
migration (to use the Anatolian term) do not regard or feel
detachment from their houses and lands nearly so acutely as a
really fixed population does.
Further, the Relieving Officers at Jerusalem and elsewhere
were surprised equally by the gratitude shown for the very
meagre and indifferent ration of barley-bread and grain (rice or
millet), which was all they were at first in a position to distribute.
This attitude of the refugees perhaps offers evidence, less of
their simplicity or honourable character, than of the poverty in
which the majority had been existing previously. If their
domestic lot had been simply to get a day’s bread by a day’s toil,
it is not so wonderful, that a day’s bread (even inferior) without
toil should fill them with gratitude, not unmixed with
astonishment.
Be that as it may, it has been decided, with undoubted
wisdom, to provide for them on a higher scale, while they are on
our hands. The ration to be distributed will consist of bread,
meat, onions, lentils or beans, rice, salt, cotton-seed oil, and
wood. Bread, for example, will be lb. men, 1 lb. women,
and | lb. children under ten years, other than those at the
breast. Meat will be distributed three times a week at the rate
of 4 oz. men, 3 oz. women and 2 oz. children. Condensed milk,
1 oz. daily, will be supplied for children under three years of age.
For the constant supply and distribution of this ration,
however, as well as to relieve Jerusalem of idling crowds
and possibilities of disturbance of the peace, it is necessary to
collect all, who are entirely dependent on us, into a camp to
which transport is easy. A suitable site therefore has been
chosen, and prepared about half a mile from Junction Station,
to which the refugees and their subsequent supply can be trans
ported by the railway. Other things being equal, a camp on the
eastern edge of the Judaean plateau would have been preferred
to one in the Shephelah. Salt is an upland town and its people