AT RAFA.
The Armistice with Turkey was announced on the 31st October, 1918, amid
the firing of guns and rockets and joy stunts by the Air Force above our
camp at Ludd.
On the 6th November the battalion was ordered to proceed to Rafa to
recuperate, refit and reorganise, and on the 7th, in the early morning,
we arrived at this frontier station bordering on "the desert and the
town."
Rafa is actually in Egypt, just over the borders of Palestine, on the
Palestine-Egyptian Railway line some five miles from the Mediterranean,
and here the tents of Israel were pitched.
Along the whole coast in this neighbourhood there runs a belt, about
four miles deep, of sand dunes and sand hills. These are very irregular
in outline, running in some places to peaks nearly 100 feet in height,
and in others forming miniature precipices, valleys and gullies. It is,
in fact, a mountainous country on a lilliputian scale.
The sand is so firm that a horse can be ridden all over it, thereby
giving great joy to the hunters of the jackals and hyenas which roam on
its barren surface. The air on this stretch of sandy dunes is
wonderfully fresh and exhilarating, and we drank it in with delight
after our trying experience in the Jordan Valley. The seashore itself
abounds with millions of curious shells.
The sand belt ends abruptly landwards and, at the very edge of it, the
Bedouin scratches up the soil with an antiquated plough which dates from
the time of Abraham. Green waving crops, pleasant to the eye, may be
seen almost under the shadow of a sand cliff. The country inland
consists of a somewhat sandy soil and gently undulating plains which
are, for the greater part, cultivated by Arabs who live in scattered
villages, and by Bedouins who come and go as the spirit moves them. The
whole place is honeycombed with holes burrowed by the little conies,
which makes riding at a fast pace somewhat hazardous.
Such was the quiet little spot in which we found ourselves after our
strenuous and exciting days in the Jordan Valley and the Land of Gilead.
Day by day our men gradually came back from Hospital and, owing to
drafts from the 40th Battalion, our strength was soon over 30 officers
and 1,500 other ranks.
After a brief time for rest, we took over "Line of Communication"
duties, and found ourselves with many miles of railway and country to
safeguard. Our life now became one constant round of guards, escorts,
fatigues, and drills whenever a few men could be spared from other
duties for the latter purpose. There were thousands of prisoners of war
in our custody, as well as a huge captured Turkish ammunition depot,
supply stores, engineer park, and all kinds of workshops, etc., etc.
[Illustration: "HERE THE TENTS OF ISRAEL WERE PITCHED"
(_See page 173_)]
Soon after we got to Rafa I lost the services of Captain Leadley, M.C.,
who was demobilized at his own request and returned to England. I
selected to succeed him Captain Duncan Sandison--as stubborn a Scot as
ever wore a kilt, a first-rate officer, loyal to the core, and a great
favourite with everybody except the evil-doers.
Early in December I received another large draft of raw Jewish recruits
from the 40th Battalion Royal Fusiliers--all American citizens.
I strongly objected to these untrained men being sent to me under the
circumstances in which I was placed, for it was impossible to give them
any training owing to the excessive duties we were called upon to
perform day and night. I knew that the result of putting raw recruits to
fulfil duties which should have been carried out only by seasoned
soldiers, must, before very long, end in disaster. I foresaw endless
breaches of discipline, not because the men were evilly disposed, but
because they were untrained and knew nothing of military discipline.
I accordingly urged the Staff to remove all these recruits, of whom I
had about 800, to a training centre, and repeatedly warned the
authorities of what the result must be if this were not done, but not
the slightest notice was taken of my appeal.
It was a thousand pities that these enthusiastic American volunteers did
not get a fair chance to show their mettle. I well remember how
favourably I was impressed with their physique and general appearance
when I inspected them on their arrival at Rafa. They were miles ahead,
physically, of the men who joined the battalion in England--in fact I do
not believe that there was a unit in the whole of the E.E.F. that held
such a fine-looking body of men. Because they were untrained and had no
idea of discipline, these hefty youths were constantly in trouble for
committing breaches of military rules and regulations. They simply did
not understand soldiering or what it meant. In this way I got to know
the majority of them fairly well. We had many interesting meetings at
"office hour." Of course, in dealing with these volunteers, I never
forgot that the faults they were guilty of were, in great measure, due
to lack of training, and I dealt with them accordingly. Their military
offences were not grave, just the delinquencies that must be expected of
recruits, because they are recruits.
Nevertheless, it is always a danger to have a battalion, supposed to be
at any moment ready to take the field, swamped with some 800 raw
untrained men.
I felt so strongly on this question, and so clearly foresaw the
inevitable end, that having failed to move the authorities myself, I
cast about me to see where I could look for help and sympathy in the
difficult situation in which I was placed; the only possible man who
might be able to do something was the Acting-Chairman of the Zionist
Commission then in Palestine. It will be remembered that, soon after the
famous Balfour Declaration, Dr. Weizmann, the President of the Zionist
Organisation, was sent out at the head of a Commission to investigate
conditions and safeguard Jewish interests in Palestine. Dr. Weizmann was
received by H.M. the King before his departure from England, and came
out armed with strong letters from the Prime Minister and Mr. Balfour to
General Allenby. Dr. Weizmann spent some time doing useful work in
Palestine, and was then recalled to England in connection with the
Zionist policy then before our Government. The mantle of Dr. Weizmann
eventually fell on Dr. Eder, and to him I now applied myself, as it was
a matter of the greatest importance that no undeserved slur should fall
upon the Jewish Battalion.
Like myself, however, Dr. Eder was unable to effect anything.
I felt very strongly that the whole attitude adopted towards the Jewish
Battalions was unworthy of British traditions of fair play. It is of
course possible that General Allenby did not know of the treatment to
which we were subjected by certain members of his Staff and other
underlings, for naturally only the greater questions would come before
him. If he had known he would surely never have countenanced the
jeopardising of the good name of any battalion in the E.E.F. by swamping
it with over 800 raw recruits who, owing to the "exigencies of the
service," had to be put on trained soldiers' duties the moment they
joined.
Unfortunately I was unable to let him know of our dilemma, for the Chief
of Staff, Major-General Louis Jean Bols, had forbidden me to address the
Commander-in-Chief direct, and apparently the appeals which I had made
on this question never reached a sympathetic quarter.
As I have already said, I had been ill from the time we began
operations in the Jordan Valley and was now reduced to a skeleton, but
by careful dieting I had hoped to weather the storm and had so far
managed to keep out of Hospital.
Thinking that a few days change would improve my health I applied for
leave and went to Cairo. While I was there I happened by chance to meet
Captain Salaman in the street, and he was so shocked at my appearance
that he straightway convoyed me off to Nasrieh Hospital, where I was
taken in hand by Captain Wallace, R.A.M.C. In a couple of weeks he had
me well enough to be transferred to the beautiful Convalescent Home at
Sirdariah, where the matron and staff of nurses were kindness and
consideration personified; a short spell in this well-managed
institution completed my cure, at the end of which I rejoined the
battalion.