We were divided into groups of fifty, each of which was put in charge of a young non-commissioned officer from the Military School of Constantinople or Damascus, or of some Arab who had seen several years' service.

These instructors had a hard time of it; the German military system, which had only recently been introduced, was too much for them.

They kept mixing up the old and the new methods of training, with the result that it was often hopeless to try and make out their orders.

Whole weeks were spent in grinding into the Arabs the names of the different parts of the rifle; weeks more went to teaching them to clean it--although it must be said that, once they had mastered these technicalities, they were excellent shots.

Their efficiency would have been considerably greater if there had been more target-shooting.
From the very first, however, we felt that there was a scarcity of ammunition.