In the first place, they came to realize that Turkey had taken up arms against Russia; and Russia is considered first and foremost the arch-enemy.
German reports of German successes also had a powerful effect on them.
They began to grow boastful, arrogant; and the sight of the plundering of Europeans, Jews, and Christians convinced them that a very desirable regime was setting in.

Saffed has a large Jewish colony, and it was torment for me to have to witness the outrages that my people suffered in the name of "requisitioning." The final blow came one morning when all the Jewish and Christian soldiers of our regiment were called out and told that henceforth they were to serve in the _taboor amlieh_, or working corps.

The object of this action, plainly enough, was to conciliate and flatter the Mohammedan population, and at the same time to put the Jews and Christians, who for the most part favored the cause of the Allies, in a position where they would be least dangerous.

We were disarmed; our uniforms were taken away, and we became hard-driven "gangsters." I shall never forget the humiliation of that day when we, who, after all, were the best-disciplined troops of the lot, were first herded to our work of pushing wheelbarrows and handling spades, by grinning Arabs, rifle on shoulder.

We were set to building the road between Saffed and Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee--a link in the military highway from Damascus to the coast, which would be used for the movement of troops in case the railroad should be cut off.