The deplorable lot of the people had been made harder by profiteering officers.  Those who had money had to part with it for Turkish paper.  The Turkish note was depreciated to about one-fifth of its face value.  German officers traded in the notes for gold, sent the notes to Germany where, by a financial arrangement concluded between Constantinople and Berlin, they were accepted at face value.  The German officer and soldier got richer the more they forced Turkish paper down.  Turkish officers bought considerable supplies of wheat and flour from military depots, the cost being debited against their pay which was paid in paper.  They then sold the goods for gold.  That accounted for the high prices of foodstuffs, the price in gold being taken for the market valuation.

In the middle of November when there was a prospect of the Turks evacuating Jerusalem, the officers sold out their stocks of provisions and prices became less prohibitive, but they rose again quickly when it was decided to defend the City, and the cost of food mounted to almost famine prices.  The Turks by selling for gold that which was bought for paper, rechanging gold for paper at their own prices, made huge profits and caused a heavy depreciation of the note at the expense of the population.  Grain was brought from the district east of the Dead Sea, but none of it found its way to civilian mouths except through the extortionate channel provided by officers.  Yet when we got into Jerusalem there were people with small stocks of flour who were willing to make flat loaves of unleavened bread for sale to our troops.  The soldiers had been living for weeks on hard biscuit and bully beef, and many were willing to pay a shilling for a small cake of bread.  They did not know that the stock of flour in the town was desperately low and that by buying this bread they were almost taking it out of the mouths of the poor.  Some traders were so keen on getting good money, not paper, that they tried to do business on this footing, looking to the British Army to come to the aid of the people.  The Army soon put a stop to this trade and the troops were prohibited from buying bread in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.  As it was, the Quarter-master-General’s branch had to send a large quantity of foodstuffs into the towns, and this was done at a time when it was a most anxious task to provision the troops.  Those were very trying days for the supply and transport departments, and one wonders whether the civilian population ever realised the extent of the humanitarian efforts of our Army staff.

During the period when no attempt was made to alleviate the lot of the people the Turks gave them a number of lessons in frightfulness.  There were public executions to show the severity of military law.  Gallows were erected outside the Jaffa Gate and the victims were left hanging for hours as a warning to the population.  I have seen a photograph of six natives who suffered the penalty, with their executioners