Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/199/1 - August - November 1918 - Part 5

41
one used to have in / long ago
days before / war. The boat heaved
and sagged to a lazy swell. There were
many other boats on / sea, mostly
making direct for Calais. After
all these four years when one all
impounding purpose possessed /
world, there was a freedom in /
air wh made all / difference. I
find it hard to describe - but /
difference ^ to ones personal comfort ws as great as tt between
drinking castor oil and enjoying a
cup of French chocolate. For four
years there has only bn one business
in / world and one has felt all / time
tt no one had any right (oneself least
of all) to have any other preoccupation
or interest. Every ship tt one saw on /
sea was in / grip of tt stern business
they were all controlled by / same
great organisation, all carrying
stores for / same destination.
 

42
exactly as if all were trucks on 
a single line of deadly dull railway
inside / big blank walls of a
government dockyard.
But today, for / first time,
there was the old romance of the
shipping of the seas in every ship tt
we saw. They were mysteries again
- as they ever will be in peace time.
They were beginning to build again /
great trade o / world - just beginning
- only / first tottering steps; but still
they were constructing good things
& varied things. Each ship had begun
to be, for all those who saw her, tt
bundle of mysteries wh she is in /
peace time. Whenever a ship heaves
up & passes you in peace, on some
business of her own, you know not
what, bound for some distant land fall
you know not where, carrying
with  in her a swarm of strange
 

43
& varied people with all sorts
of interests - unfamiliar to you-
Whenever one of those wayfarers
of / sea passes you she carries
w her an aroma of mystery
& romance wh you come to
associate w / smell of ^ships tar & of  
a sea rope. You cannot pass
round the crowded basin of any
old world port without feeling
it - these people - whether they
are going to S. America or
the East Indies or Western America
or the Levant or the White Sea -
or if they are going only round /
rugged corner of / local coast to fetch
Strawberry baskets and wood
faggots - they are going on a
voyage into a world we do not
dream off; each ship is a packet of
 

44
strange interests, strange sights, 
strange memories & ^ vivid impressions
well - for / first time in
four years tt aroma begins to
hang around / ships o / world
today. It may seem ^ a vague 
abstract thing to write here, but
it is as real as anything in life
to me today. Two days ago these
ships were as dull and like to
one another as trucks in a coal
train - today they are free to do
their own work for / world; at
least to begin their varied interests
of peace in place of this one dull
all pervading objective o / war. and
what is as much - one is free to enjoy the sounds
& sights around one. Of course / war precautions
are still being taken. The German
navy has not submitted.
"S.M.S" (they still call her tt) 
Strassburg has summoned /
 

45

German submarines not to submit
to / humiliating conditions o /
armistice in spite o their Govt
having signed it; not one German
submarine has come into ^the ports
where they were required to come.
The navy is meticulous, agst /
German Govt. ^as agst / Kaiser. Our Admty
has asked for all seaside lights
to remain shaded. We have told
/ German Govt (& their delegates have
agreed) tt if the German Navy does
not act in accordance w /  terms
o / armistice we shall occupy
Heligoland in order to be in
a position to force them. The German
people under Dr Solf, who
seems to be / biggest man there
(as I thought he wd be after meeting
him in Sydney in 1909 or 1910)
 

46
when he seemed to me a German w
really broad & wise. ideas, very
British & unGerman Ideas, on / Govt
of Samoa) has appealed to President
Wilson for mercy on / German people
wh is in danger of starvation; &
Wilson & Clemenceau (who is
a really great man, by ^all his
recent magnificent speeches - & a
fair one to England) have promised
this. But unless / ^German Navy acts
in accordance w / armistice
I don't think there will be
bread xx sent to them; & this
is / great handle wh / allies at
present hold. If Germany plays her
part & restores France & Belgium
she will get bread - otherwise
she will not
we were escorted over by
 

47
destroyers as usual & by three
small airships; the airships
had nothing better to do
for once in a while, spent the
time on this voyage in diving
towards / ships, soaring again,
playing every sort of prank in /
air to amuse / men on board
when they waved / men on
xxx our ^four or five little cross channel ships waved back.
We still kept to the crooked course
between / two shores in order
to avoid / minefield wh must
still be there. As we came in
there was a dull boom behind us
and one destroyer ws hidden
by / smoke on / water for
a moment. I fancy she had
destroyed a mine.
 

48
The towns in England were
beflagged. In one field we saw
a dozen German prisoners working
picking greens in charge of one
old Tommy; & from one heap of
greens in front of them there stuck
a tall staff on wh waved a
Union  Jack.
In London I went to
the War Records section & found tt
Treloar (now Major) was away
on his honeymoon. Funny old
fellow - he brought / girl over
quietly from Australia & married
her last week without even telling
Balfour, his assistant and
confidant all thro' / war.
He didn't even tell Mrs Almon,
at the lodgings, though she knew
 

49
very well because his room
had always bn full of photos
o / girl.
On leaving the Records.  I
saw Long & got him to agree (on
Whites advice) to take / little
book on Reconstruction for his
Education scheme as a work
on "Civics". He will order 2000
at once - of course the scheme
will get any profit tt there is.
As I went out from his place
to dine w Murdoch I walked
into a strange Victoria Steet.
For / moment, I cdnt imagine
why all / lights had such
strange bright halos round
them - until I realised
tt for 4 years I had not seen
 

50

street lamps at all except the
hooded ones of war time. The lights
were / sight of London. There were
a number of people in / streets
w flags in their coats or on their
jackets; that seemed to be /
main decoration & it ws well
done. Very few drunks. As I
came back late I saw a crowd
standing around some soldiers &
girls who were dancing a jig.
It is / first time I have seen a
jig but there ws no mistaking
the quick jigging step. They
were laughing & shouting - 
quite decent in it all. It
struck one - here at last is /
reason for dancing - it is a