of the very soil on which they stood.  The moment we were victorious old occupations were resumed by the people in the way that was a tradition from their forefathers.  Our victory meant peace and safety, according to the native idea, and an end to extortion, oppression, and pillage under the name of requisitions.  It also meant prosperity.  The native likes to drive a bargain.  He will not sell under a fair price, and he asks much more in the hope of showing a buyer who has beaten him down how cheaply he is getting goods.  The Army chiefly sought eggs, which are light to carry and easy to cook, and give variety to the daily round of bully, biscuit, and jam.  The soldier is a generous fellow, and if a child asked a piastre (2-1/2d.) for an egg he got it.  The price soon became four to five for a shilling in cash, though the Turks wanted five times that number for an equivalent sum in depreciated paper currency.  The law of supply and demand obtained in this old world just as at home, and it became sufficient for a soldier to ask for an article to show he wanted it and would pay almost anything that was demanded.  It was curious to see how the news spread not merely among traders but also among villagers.  The men who first occupied a place found oranges, vegetables, fresh bread, and eggs cheap.  In Ramleh, for example, a market was opened for our troops immediately they got to the town, and the goods were sound and sold at fair rates.  The next day prices were up, and the standards fixed behind the front soon ruled at the line itself.  There was no real control attempted, and while the extortionate prices charged by Jews in their excellent agricultural colonies and by the natives made a poor people prosperous, it gave them an exaggerated idea of the size of the British purse, and they may be disappointed at the limitation of our spending powers in the future.  Also it was hard on the bravest and most chivalrous of fighting men.  But it opened the eyes of the native, whose happiness and contentment were obvious directly we reached his doors.

Our movements on November 9 were limited by the extent to which General Chauvel was able to use his cavalry of the Desert Mounted Corps.  Water was the sole, but absolute handicap.  The Yeomanry Mounted Division rejoined the Corps on that day and got south of Huj, but could not proceed further through lack of water and supply difficulties.  The Australian Mounted Division also had to halt for water, and it was left to Anzac Mounted Division, plus the 7th Mounted Brigade, to march eighteen miles north-westwards to occupy the line Et Tineh-Beit Duras-Jemameh-Esdud (the Ashdod of the Bible).  The 52nd Division occupied the area Esdud-Mejdel-Herbieh by the evening of the 10th, and on the way, Australian cavalry being held up on a ridge north of Beit Duras, the 157th Brigade made another of its fine bayonet charges at night and captured the ground, enabling the cavalry to get at some precious water.  The brigade made the attack just after