Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/115/1 - June 1918 - Part 4

107                                              29
ended his career w us when he
went over to / English."
Dodds sd: "Well tt is exactly
what I told him & what others told
him"...... So Dodds had clearly been
driven back & back until he had given
up / fight.  He ws sent over from France
specially to show all / papers to
Hughes & he had them there.  In / car
 

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back he told us tt he found Hughes
absolutely determined & w his mind
made up.
I think tt Hughes is really
doing what he thinks best for
Australia.  In talking to Murdoch &
myself he sd:  The chief thing to
consider is not / political effects
so much - the question is what
 

107                                                  31
is best for the force & for the men
in it -" that was his preface & I
think it was probably honest.  Hughes
had his telephone apparatus (a microphone)
on / table all / time to help him to
hear.  He is increasingly deaf.  I
thought he ws looking very pale &
blue abt / lips - but he brightened up
as soon as he got onto controversy.
 

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He has had some sort of facial Eczema
since leaving America ^.but is better.  He is very
nervous, I believe, of air raids
& I daresay tt is why he is not at
/ Savoy w Joe Cook & / other
Prime Ministers.  Box says ^Hughes he will
not sleep a wink at Corps Hqrs
& therefore cannot stay two nights.
 

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Hughes son ws there - a little chap in
the transport of the 9^th Bde.  He ws wd
by a piece of shell in / leg at Villers
Bretonneux.  Not a bad youngster - a private
On / way home I cd
I went to dinner with Griffiths
& Howse & Dodds.  Griffiths ws looking
very sorry.  "I hate to think of him
 

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being in any way turned out," he sd
- & I knew he referred to Gen. Birdwood.
"I do hope tt Hughes will put it nicely
to him so tt he can withdraw from
it himself by his own act."
He sd tt Hughes' opinion wd be
quite eno' for Birdwood; if / Austln
Prime Minister thought he ought to go, then
 

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Birdwood would go - without any
questioning.  Birdwood's standard was
high & tt wd be eno' for him to know if he understood tt Hughes thought
he
an order to ^ought not to stay he wd certainly resign from his command
position.  One felt rather as if one had
murdered Birdwood.  But Griffiths quite agrees
That night I saw
tt White ought not to have been taken
from us - & on all other points.
That night I saw Mr Cook.  I
 

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called & found Murdoch there & Cook
out.  Murdoch had to go but I
sat yarning with Latham, the melbourne
barrister who is his naval staff officer,
and I ws just leaving, at about
12 p.m. when Cook & his son came
in.
Joe Cook struck me as having
 

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only one object in this matter - to
do / best for Australia. I found he
had a tremendous belief in White,
& wanted to make White G.O.C. A.I.F
because he cd not at first realise
tt a soldier cd desire most the
junior position because it ws a
fighting one.  Cook is very disturbed abt
 

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/ financial affairs of the A.I.F.  He
says tt its finances are by no means
right.
June 17^th (Monday)
They are also disturbed in Austlia
about / sending back of reinforcements
who have been sent from there as
fit, but who are marked unfit here
& sent back before they reach / field.