The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-03-11
Private VIII Handy of the British
Forces Writes Letter to His
Cousin Here Telling
of Event.
BEAT BACK ATTEMPTS
Disaster Overlook Turks Who Tried
to Recapture Jerusalem From
Forces Under General
Allenby.

| An interesting story of the capture
| of Jerusalem, by member of the
British expeditionary force is con
tanned in a letter received here by
Miss Louisa Handy. member OF the
high school faculty, from her cousin,
VIII Handy, who took part In the
capture Of the Holy City. He tells
of the triumphal march OF General
Allenby's forces, and how the British
once in command Of the city. prepaf-
ed to hold 1t against recapture by the
Turks. An excellent description Of
the city and the conditions existing
in it are given in the letter which Is
printed here:
Dear Cousin Louisa:
Having appointed myself your
Palestine war cores pondent In
rash moment, feel certain that
there will soon be such stern query
as what have you got to say ABOUT
Jerusalem and it's capture, were you
there?"
Unfortunately for me there is no
escape, for l was most certainly
there, although beyond figuring as
target for the enemy artillery my part
in the affair was not a conspicuous
one.
The initial push of our brigade
was made at a place of some interest
historically for our first task was to
expell the Turk from the village OF
Ain Khareem (phonetic s2ellinsj
which tradition asserts to be the
birthplace of St. John the Baptist.
Here, as at all places associated with
the scriptures, religious people have
built a monastery, and several CHAP
els in honor of the saint and Eliza
beth. his mother The Turks did not
leave without taking with them most
Of the valuable ornaments and plate
from the chapels, to the great grlef
of the monks, but by good luck near
ly all the plumber was recovered next
day when we captured some guns
and a number of ammunition wagons.
From Ain Khareem we pressed on
over hills planted with vineyards
and before nightfall the enemy haa
lost his main line OF defense and had
fallen right back on Jerusalem.
Change In Weather.
That night we realized how great a
change had come over the weather
since the commencement OF the Of
fensive At Beersheba we went into
the attack in our shirt sleeves, but
the weather we encountered before
Jerusalem was most uncomfortably
English. Still wearing our summer
clothing, we spent most OF that night
stamping up and down to recover our
circulation. I cannot say that I agree
with the patriarch Jacob in his par
TALLY for Palestine rocks as pillows,
they make their presence felt too
much after a time.
Next morning, instead OF finding |
the Jerusalem suburbs nest OF ma
chine guns we were surprised to |
find that the enemy had feared to |
make a further stand because Of the |
risk of having his retreat nOrthwards |
cut off and that he had retired two |
or three miles clear of the city.
The inhabitants, especially the
Jewish colony, seemed very pleased !
at our arrival. They lined the street,
crying 'twelcome!' as we marched |
by, and from the way they raised |
the price of all articles for sale,
have no doubt they were.
With the Turk clear of the city, we
settled down to q more or less defin-
tie line of defense and things became !
uuieter. This gave us hopes that we
might be able to indulge in some mild |,
ever, it was not to be, for our excel
lent intelligent service discovered
that our friend, the Turk, wished to
have Jerusalem back again and that
operations were due to commence
some fine morning at 3 a. m.
The Turks Arrive.
There were no fine mornings until
December 2Sth, and in the meantime
we plodded through rain and mud,
as warm a reception as pos
sible for him. and rejecting on what |
a merry Christmas we were having.