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Rh sentenced to death were hanged in public squares in Damascus and Beirut. Membership in one of those societies on the black list ; charges proffered by personal enemies or jealous rivals ; sympathy with the French as revealed by the seized archives of the Beirut consulate; and above all, espousal of the Arab cause upheld by al-Sharif Husayn of Mecca — any of these was enough to bring the alleged criminal before the military tribunal. The Sharif in 191 6 unfurled the banner of rebellion against the Young Turks, declared himself 'king of the Arabs' and entered into secret communication with Arab nationalists outside Hejaz. On May 6 of that year Jamal sent fourteen Moslems and Christians in Beirut and seven in Damascus to the gallows. The day is still commemorated as 'martyrs' day' in both cities, and the sites are called 'martyrs' squares'.

By way of preparation for the ill-conceived attack on the Suez Canal Jamal imposed military conscription, requisi- tioned beasts of burden and summoned the populace to provision his troops at a time when they could hardly provision themselves. The Allied blockade by sea and land was becoming tighter and its effects were beginning to tell. The entire area became a paradise for all kinds of disease germs — malaria, typhus, typhoid and dysentery. Con- taminated soldiers spread all sorts of maladies. A plague of locusts in the spring of 19 15 veiled the sun and added its quota to the economic misery. Whatever drugs were avail- able were hardly enough to meet the military demands. Evidence goes to show that in the case of Lebanon a deliberate effort was made to starve and decimate the people. About a hundred thousand are estimated to have been lost out of its four hundred and fifty thousand population. But for remittances and aid from the United States, some of which was side-tracked by local authorities, casualties would have been heavier.

While the people were passing through these agonizing experiences the Allied Powers were planning the parcelling Rh