. THE ARABS AND BRITISH TROOPS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Your readers may be interested in the following extract from a letter I received this week from an Arab Nationalist friend, dated October 5th :
"We live in a state of war ; Jerusalem is a soldiers' camp. There is now in the city-on-strike a great movement because of the troop-traffic that goes on day and night. We behold daily big guns, armoured cars, tanks and all kinds of arms, but the people look on it as it it were passing through their country to another. The troops themselves, I mean the Tommies,' seem to be sad and shy. In them you cannot see that hilarity that we saw in the British soldiers when they were going through Jerusalem to meet the Turk in Rarnallah and Nablus in 1918-1919. Officers speak highly of Arab bravery and Arab fighting sportsmanship. I am glad to hear that from them.
"Some time ago in -, an officer was in a bar. He stood up and ordered the barman to pour whiskey and soda for all who were there ; many were Jews. When they got their glasses filled, he proposed the health of the Arabs. The Jews stood aghast. He insisted that everybody should drink. They did. He then said, 'I now will tell you why I did this.' He opened his chest ; there was a healing scar. He told them that a month ago in an engage- ment near Jerusalem he was shot ; he fainted, and only opened his eyes to find himself in a cave surrounded by armed Arabs. He wished he had died, thinking they were going to put him to torture. He made a sign to them to kill him and they smiled. He noticed that they looked kindly, but he could not speak to them. Later on a man came in ; he knew a few words of English, which were enough to make him understand that he was a doctor. He band- aged his wound. A horse was brought and he was asked to ride on it ; a man led the horse and another walked beside him to act as a stick for the wounded man to lean on. They were extremely kind. They took him very near to a police station, took him down, put him in a conspicuous position and retired. When they were a few hundred paces away they fired one shot in the air and ran away. The police rushed out and found the officer lying on a rock. He said he was for ever grateful to the Arabs who shot him in battle and saved him after it."
This story reminds me of one told me by a Jewish friend who was serving in Palestine in 1917-18. He said that when the British went out after an engagement to pick up the wounded, both British and Turks, they found that in many cases the Turkish soldiers (who were, of course, Palestine-Arab conscripts) had left their water-bottles beside the English wounded as they passed them in their retreat. Those who remember the exceeding preciousness of every drop of water in pre-War Palestine will understand the wonderful self- sacrifice of these Arab soldiers.—Yours faithfully,
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