Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/112/1 - May 1918 - Part 4

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for boards worn by / feet of
countless ration parties, fatigues; & / countless
feet of infantry going again & again into / trenches.
At the same time White told me tt
Gen. Birdwood wanted to see me
about my objection to / scheme by wh
he remains G.O.C., A.I.F. Birdie
I went in to see / little general.  He 
put it to me tt there ws not a whole
 

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days work for one man in / office
of the G.O.C., A.I.F;  tt he wd ^had bn promised tt always,
if / exigencies o / war allowed it, the
Australian Corps shd be in his army.
"I think, without being immodest, that you
must give some importance to personality,"
he sd - "one's personal fitness."
I could not agree though I hated 
to disagree.  He saw tt I did not agree &
told White so - & he very nicely asked
 

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me to have tea w him.
Rawlinson ws there.  Houghton told
us / other day tt "Rawly" does not
approve of capital punishment in / field
& will not confirm it except in ^unless in / most exceptional & extreme cases.
It is / best thing I have heard of him.  But
He is certainly an accomplished man, good
French scholar, artist, writer.  But everyone
says he is a "bluff".
I wonder if future ages will believe
 

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tt this sort of thing is written by a Bulgarian
poet - Arnaud or some such name - about / war:
"Bodies all velvet soft, of babes & mothers,
Make carpet softer far than ^?softest sward
But taste thou first their morning dew -
And forcibly from their fresh youth take pleasure.
Take thou the fruit, then hurl the peel away,
Let press thy horse's hoof on woman's bosom soft
Lest that same milk should nourish hostile sons.
Let not stone remain on stone;
Let not babe on mother bosom smile;
Let no grandchild walk with old grandsire.
Cast their skulls unto fierce howling dogs.
The dawn shall rest on fields that thou hast sown
Full thick with skeletons & spectres -
Of burning bodies let / fumes rise into / sky."
 

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That is war - naked - as / German wants
it if he is as logical as he pretends to be;  &
of course his military leaders would approve.
I daresay our Ghurkas & the Senegalese of
the French would have the same sort of war song.
It is late & I have just finished this
diary for the week.  The G night is disturbed.
The planes have gone - I am sitting on / floor
o / tent, Dyson asleep on one side & Cutlack
on / other; a candle stuck on a high stake in /
ground by my side, w its flame wobbling & making
a wavering shadow on / floor. Ones feet are
beginning to freeze - the guns are occasionally
 

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blurting out in / valleys beyond this
place, & / German has been throwing a
few shells somewhere into / wood.  The nightingales
are singing outside - sometimes one wonders
if it is they or / whistle for wh means
"German plane - lights out."  (As a matter
of fact by shutting these brown tents close you
can keep your lights on.)
I must spread my sleeping bag on
/ floor, take off my coat, put it over my 
feet, & turn in.  That - & taking off ones
boots, - is all / undressing one does here; it wd
 

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probably be safe to get into pyjamas here -
but too cold.
A glorious clear night outside; moon
full - or possibly just past it - but looking
perfectly round through the great tree trunks.
It is on these nights tt they half expect /
Germans to march up their infantry,
taking advantage o / light to move
whereas our planes would observe them by
day.
Little S.J. Crowe o / 5^th Field Survey Coy told me on
Friday that / German guns were not yet in
 

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position. He knows from / air photos.
May 27. Monday.
extracted 
Spent the morning drawing up
the attached suggested orders & instructions for
the A.I.F. artists; & going through Longs 
suggestions for the University scheme (also
attached.) extracted - see H/N
At This afternoon we met at Corps
Hqrs - the Committee which is fathering
this scheme (or rather criticising it); and
 

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Monash took the chair. But it was 
White, as usual, who illuminated the
scheme with his flashes of clear insight.
Prof. David was there, but ws vague &
diffuse & dreamy by comparison.  Monash
in / chair managed / mtg very ably.
I think a first rate Chaplain Rolland, who has bn w /
men o / 14^th Bn in / line for a long while past,
& appeared w his head bound up through
gas received at V/Bretonneux - I think he gave
 

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them some o / soundest advice o / lot -
They decided not to base their scheme on
military forms - for example, not to
have, say, one ^assistant director per division simply
because they were divisions - but to leave
decide what subjects they wanted & have
one ^asst director for each subject; & so also
for ^the administration of each separate stage of instruction 
- one man to see tt there were classes for
those who are in / middle of their education,