here was not dearth of that kind. It was an artificial
shortage made possible by German demands, and made intentional by
Jemal's policy. Beirut was in no better case than Smyrna; Lebanon
perhaps was in sorer straits than either. Money was equally scarce, and
it fitted Jemal's policy that this should be so, for when Americans in
Beirut had raised funds in America for the relief of the destitute, the
Turkish Government forbade their distribution. Arabs and Greeks were
dying by the hundred all over the provinces, and the beneficent decrees
of nature must not be interfered with. In the streets of towns the poor
have been fighting over scraps of sugarcane and orange peel; in the
country, to quote from _Molcattam_, 'no sooner do wild plants and beans
start to grow than the fields are filled with women and children who
pick them and use them as food.' Except for military purposes (including
the victualling of German troops) transportation has ceased to exist,
and this, too, was part of the policy of Jemal the Great.

On the heels of famine, like a hound behind a huntsman, came typhus. In
the province of Aleppo before the summer of 1916, over 8000 persons had
died of it. Doctors and medicines were unobtainable, for all were
requisitioned for the needs of the army, and in Damascus and Tripoli, in
Hama and Homs, the epidemic spread like a forest fire. No help was sent
from Constantinople, none was permitted to be brought by the charitable
from abroad, for famine and pestilence among the Arabs were working for
the policy of Jemal the Great. There were no troops to spare who should
hasten on the work, but the work was progressing by swift and 'natural'
means. Hunger and pestilence--behold the finger of Allah the God of
Love! How superior He showed Himself to the discarded Allah of the
Arabs. 'Ring down the curtain,' said Jemal the Great, 'and let no news
of the ways of Allah get abroad!' So a strict surveillance was
established on the coast, all boats were chained to the shore, and if
any attempted to swim out to ships of the Allied nations which passed,
the coast guards had orders to shoot him down. Too much news about
Armenian massacres filtered through; there should not now be such
leakage. And when starvation and pestilence had firmly established
themselves, Jemal the Great went down to see what his personal exertions
could effect. All was working in accordance with his plan; the poorer
classes of Arabs were dying like flies, bu