January 13, 1916. 
LAND AND WATER 
[Cluuige of Gauge) 
J -Jerasa 
Vi- Hebron 
'S>=ieers/ieda 
particularly long tunnel, which is far from 
completion. This gap I have marked in Sketch I 
by the letter A. There is a second gap over the 
mountain range coincident, with the Gulf of 
Alexandretta, marked B upon Sketch I. 
But both these gaps, although they involve 
a transhipment of munitions and men, are 
bridged by roads which have been improved since the 
outbreak of the war, and are said to be in good 
condition. The gaps will cause delay, but not of 
themselves any interruption., in supply. From 
Aleppo onwards the main line to Bagdad is not 
yet completed. A branch line strikes southward 
from Aleppo to Damascus and then follows along 
the old pilgrim track upon the barren tableland 
east of Jordan, proceeding towards the western 
Arabian littoral and serving Mecca. South of 
Damascus, at Deraa, a branch line has loqg been 
constructed leading to the sea. But for tjip pur- 
pose of an advance on Egypt our interest, lies in 
the construction, undertaken in the course of the 
war, of a new line marked C C upon the map and 
leading through the Holy Land past Jerusalem 
at J, Hebron at H, to Beersheba at B. 
It is with the direct object of menacing the 
Suez Canal and Egypt that this further branch line 
has been under construction from the junction 
at Deraa, just south of Da;nascus down through 
the Holy Land to the last considerable inhabited 
point of that country, the Well of (the) Seba, Bir-cs- 
