File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎123v] (244/450)

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of the people ; both officers are of opinion that no revolution can ever be hoped for at
Constantinople, as those who might have led have been exterminated, and those who
would have followed have been dispersed.
f rom Iskidar the battalion crossed the Bosphorus to Kaputash in the dark
with all lights extinguished, owing to fear of British submarines. After refitting,
the battalion proceeded to Haidar Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Station, entrained, and started for Bozant?;
shortly after starting, the train was delayed four hours by a British submarine which
was shelling the coast from the Gulf of Ismid. From Ismid to Bozanti the journey
lasted seventy-two hours. The railway rolling-stock was good, but the locomotives
showed signs of deterioration owing to the use of wood fuel. At Bozanti the troops
were encamped for the night and proceeded to Tarsus in four marches, the battalion
carried its own tents and equipment on 110 pack animals. The troops suffered con
siderably from cold during the first three stages. The rations were Urbswurst soup in
addition to Burgul, ghi, and mutton. The officers messed separately, and always had a
three-course dinner cooked in European style. At Tarsus the battalion was detached
from the division and delayed owing to an expected landing at Alexandretta or Ayas
Bay , ibis delay lasted fifteen days, when the battalion entrained once more and
proceeded to Maahmura (Osmanie) in six hours, detrained, and marched to Hassan Bey
in tour hours, where it encamped, and proceeded by daily marches to Islahie-Takhta
Kubri, Raju, Yeni Kubri, Katma, following the railway from Islahie, but not entraining
owing to shortage of fuel and rolling-stock. At Katma the battalion entrained, reaching
Aleppo in two hours. However, this last stage could only be accomplished by taking two
companies at a time, as the locomotive could not get up sufficient steam to pull under
wood fuel. r
xileppo was reached about the 25th December. At Aleppo the battalion was halted
about fifteen days, and Lieutenant Shurbaji was sent on duty to Damascus. The
journey from Aleppo to_ Damascus occupied thirty hours by rail, the road was in fair
order, the rolling-stock in good condition, and the shortage of fuel less noticeable. The
main points this officer noticed on the way from Aleppo to Damascus was the result of
the locusts in 1915, which had almost destroyed the crops and reduced the country to
great poverty, the all-pervading typhus epidemic in Homs, Hama,.Baalbek districts, and
the forcible migration of Armenians who were swarming south by road and rail.
Lieutenant Shurbaji estimates that he saw 1,000 dead Armenians during the daylight
hours or his journey, lying by the railway at various points. These people had perished
from famine and typhus. The survivors were, on arrival at Haimi, near Damascus,
dispersed among the various towns and villages where they were well cared for by the
Arabs, but hastened the spread of typhus.
At Damascus, Jemal was ruling by terror and force. The situation was as
follows: the papers of the french Consulate at Damascus had been obtained early in
tie war and the fact was secretly known to nearly everybody, and the Turks were
o ding the papers in terrorism over the heads of the Arab notables, and occasionally
hanging a man here and there. It would seem as if the papers from the Consulate at
Bey rut had also been tampered with earlier than is usually supposed, but it is open to
que^ ion. ^ aisal, the son of the Sherif, was in attendance on Jemal, and certain
no caffes, viz., Ibish and the Emir El Haj were made much of as Turco-phils.
. Committee was very powerful in Damascus, and Jemal could never
ascertain its actual personnel or whereabouts, nor have the recent executions destroyed
1 ’ . u e ^ 10 ence the Turks having produced an Arab Committee as occult and elusive
as the Lommittee of Union and Progress itself.
About fifty officers and many sons of notables of Homs, Hama, and Damascus had
<<'en ie uge m the Leja and Jehel Druse with the Druses, and were protected bj 7 the
1 ash ami y. I fie Arab Committee at Damascus arranged for these peoples’ passage
from Damascus to Jebel Druse. It is estimated, that deserters and refugees inclusive,
that m the Leja, Hauran, and Jebel, there were at that date (1st January, 1916) above
,JU armed men^ ready to rise in event of propitious circumstances. Lieutenant
mi >aji is 0> opinion that this situation still holds good, and he is satisfied that the
I if Ce f exec ^Lons in by ria have not had any fundamental effect on the power of the
r . a , , oram dIee w ncn is secret enough to survive the disappearance of many individual
As far as the Lebanon was concerned, Emir Arslan was the acting Governor, and
T l \? ma 1(3 j 0 ' ie ^ lir ks and Jemal, i here was constant communication between the
ebanon and Hauran Druses, the Druse policy was to maintain good relations with the
Ty 0Ve " nil V nL I ° U ° ^ lve ^ 110 0 PP 0I1 funity to strengthen its hold on them. A hundred
luse vo un eeis were sent from Hauran in response to an appeal by Jemal, for a levy