MacNamara diary, 19 August 1916-29 May 1919 / John Patrick MacNamara - Page 202
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[Page 202]
carriages in & around Beyrout but of course the Turkish Army took the best of them. They are bred in Tripoli & are taller than the Egyptian Arab & finer built.
In the market place we were asking the price of vegetables etc in pre war days & from what we gathered living must have been very cheap. For instance cauliflowers before the war cost 1PT for 3 or 4 decent sized ones while eggs in summer were 60 for 1/- & in winter 2 dozen per 1/-. Bread also used to be about ½ the price or even less than we paid for it in Australia.
We had to leave Beirut on Saturday morning 25th for Haifa going by boat. Owing to the early hour at which we started we had to sleep on the wharf overnight & be on board by 0515 am.
The boat was a drifter or mine sweeper - only about 100 tons, with no accommodation for passengers. There were 30 officers & men going down to Haifa & we just had to sit anywhere we could.
I was very sick indeed, in fact I don't think I was ever so sick before. It was not due to the rough sea as there was only a swell on but I think it must have been