Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/2/1 - January - March 1915 - Part 12

109
March 7
Maygar asked me if I would come down &
meet the South Africans & read the letter to
them & tell them, as I did the others had done to themselves,  just
why it was written & how the innocent men
going home were amply safeguarded. I
said I certainly would. He said a meeting
would be illegal but if I would come to
a social he would guarantee as far as he
was concerned that they'd give me a fair
hearing. I thought this the best thing -
I agree with him that you it is a method
that never fails with Australians, to go
& face them. They always give you a fair
deal if you do. It turned out  He let it out
that I was supposed to have been invited
to the previous meeting - & they actually
gave it out there that I had been asked
& had not attended. I dont know if
this was a bit of double work on the
part of the secretary or if he actually
sent a letter to some other address. It
was untrue - I never even knew that a meeting
had been held although everyone else seemed
to. 

X Three years later Smith told me that it was his
Son, a private in the transport, who had told him of it. The
boy had heard some artillery men - rough men - arranging
to waylay me on my way to the meeting tt night & lay
me out.  [At least tt is what he understood they were
going to do. They sd:  "It's up to us to see that bloke doesn't
get there." He may have misunderstood them - Anyway
he told his father - Smith didn't tell me but he had the
meeting stopped].

110
March 8. 9
Monday March 8.  Heard from Maj. Maygar that
the "social" had been arranged for Wednesday
night.  He & the committee invited me &
I accepted.

Tuesday March 9.  Capt.Smith, acting the new Provost Marshal
asked me this morning if I had heard
of a meeting of S. African veterans called to
meet me. I said I knew a social was
being held. He said he would have something
to say to it. I said I thought ^ the holding of a social evening
was not offending against military
law & that it was much the best way
for me to go down & put my points straight
to these men. He was very much against
it. So were Patterson & Griffiths. It turned
out that a man who came up from the
Field Artillery to join the police gave the
show away to Smith the night before . X
Smith asked Col. White if it was legal -
I asked White to let it be held, if he didn't
see any insuperable objection - but he
said it must be laid before the General.
This Smith did. The General ^ was absolutely opposed to the meeting. 

111
March 9
It seems he knew - they all did, but it
was news to me - that some leading officer,
either Col. Elliott of the 8^th  or Col. Johnston of
the Artillery - was agitating this movement
against me. The General must have taken
some steps because Maygar came up & saw
him & afterwards saw me & told me that
he had to withdraw from the meeting &
he advised me to do the same - he was
bound, he said, to give me that advice; I
dont think it was his real opinion.
This means the meeting may still be held but
Maygar may not be there. He told me that
this being the case he couldn't guarantee what
would be the mens behaviour. I said if
the meeting were still held I'd like to go; &
I asked him to let me know definitely
whether it were on or off. As a matter of
fact I dont much relish the idea of facing
this meeting ^ especially if no responsible man is in
the chair; but I cant have 300 men turn up
expecting to meet me & myself not be there.
I asked Col. White whether I might go or
not as I liked - seeing how things stood & he said 

112

March 9
it was entirely in my discretion. "It's quite a
small matter really, Bean," he said; "&, you know,
I'm an optimist in these matters, I always believe
that if a thing was right in the beginning it cant
turn out wrong in the end.  & you know that in
this you were perfectly right. You can tell
them I said so," he added.  "You can say
I read the letter before it was sent & approved
of it."  I determined however not to say
this.  After all I have this fact as a last resort,
that these ex-South Africans cant kick up too
much fuss because they know that what I
said was true - that is, those who have read it
do. I would tell them exactly what I have
written & what I have done; & if they liked to
get the statistics & I was proved wrong I
would withdraw what I said - but as a
matter of fact I know the statistics show
that I was right & the proportion of
old South Africans (probably chiefly old
soldiers) amongst the men sent home
for misconduct or whose services ^ were "no longer required"
is out of all proportion to the numbers larger than the
average which they ought to have. I wont 

113
March 9. 10. 11
retract a thing that's true; but if the S.A.
fellows show up well in the fighting, as they
probably will, I'll try & give them every
ounce of the credit due to them.

Wed. March 10. The meeting is off. I got a
note about 4 or 5 in the afternoon from
Maygar to that effect. I was relieved
- very relieved; but also sorry, in a way,
because this would have explained to the
men what I did say.

Thurs. March 11.  A perfectly vile day. Yesterday
& today have been scorching hot, with
a dry wind from the desert blowing
very fiercely & bringing with it clouds
of dust. Yet the men have been out
trench digging in it for two days, both
brigades; & Blamey & I found the 2nd Coy of
Engineers putting up a wire entanglement
right in the thick of it about midday.
These hot days Col. Owen takes the
3rd battalion out of camp very early
for a march & lets the men get away 

114
March 11. 14
early. One of the Victorian colonels - Bolton,
I think - bivouacs his brigade in the
desert every night now instead of in camp.
The men are getting played out & pneumonia
is getting prevalent again. We were luckily
rid of small pox 7 cases & 2 deaths - &
it has stopped there.

Sunday March 14.  Over at Heliopolis again
to get Maj. Brereton to look through the
stuff I wrote about the New Zealanders.
As I left camp Howse said:  "Off to Heliopolis?
This is the last visit you'll pay there for some
time."
When I returned I saw clearly that
there had been some sort of an intimation
received that we were likely to start.
Also I know that Birdwood had asked
Gen. Maxwell to cable home f asking
whether I could go to the front &
has received the answer that "press
correspondents are not to leave Cairo
at present. The date when they can do
so is not yet settled." That means 

115
March 14
that the British Govt ^ or War Office is determined to treat
me as any other Press Correspondent.  Of
course it is a slight to Australia - though
I don't suppose they realise it - that the
man the Australian govt chose to send
with their force to give some sort of account
of it shd be treated by the war office as if
they cdn't see any difference between
him and the correspondent of any English
newspaper. They make a big difference
in the case of their own Eyewitness
& the Indian Eyewitness & I believe
Canada has an Eyewitness too.
White who has more genuine sense in
his little finger than many war office
officials have in their small minds knows
that I can do no harm & may do
much good. There's no question of
my attempting to evade censorship.
I'm the representative of my country
& not of a newspaper. But the war
office is unlikely to grasp the difference 

116
March 15. 16
Monday March 15.  There's clearly a
move in the air. Attacks are to be made on
the trench lines built dug by the infantry, but
they will be a little perfunctory I'm afraid
because there's a sort of feeling in the camp
that thes real business is at hand at
last.
I was asked over to see Heliopolis
Hospital today. Maj. Barrett asked me
to come, & at some inconvenience I managed
it though today I shd be writing. When I
got there I was left for ¾ hour whilst they
took photographs of motor ambulances.
As there seemed no prospect of seeing
the place I came away. I may go again
on Thursday - arranged with Smith to do so.

Tuesday. March 16. Cooks told me twice
that the mail went today. Now
they say it went yesterday - the ship
left early for Marseilles. In that case
I missed it - with 5 letters, too.
Wednesday. wired to Sir George Reid, with 

117
March 16. 17. 18
White's consent, asking if he would get the
consent of the war office to my going off with
the troops on condition that I write nothing
until authorised.
Wed. March 17. It is rumoured that our plans
have been altered. One never knows what
to believe. But it is said that Greece was
to have come in on March 2. She did
not do so. Her Govt fell; & Venizelos went
out; & his successor is for neutrality.
It is said that this prevents us from doing
what some people say we were to
have done - occupy Lemnos, an island
just off the entrance of the Dardanelles &
wait there for the French expeditn from
Algeria which is supposed to be coming
across the sea now. They say Maclagan's
3^rd Brigade is still in its transports.

Thurs. March 18. Out with the troops all day
on a scheme. MacLaurin with the
first brigade surrounded McCay M^cKay,
with the second.
Capt Collins wires that he is 

118
March 18. 19. 20. 21
endeavouring to get War Office to consent to
my going with the troops.  Attended funeral of
poor Maj. Parker who died in two days from meningitis
He was an officer marked for promotion.
Friday March 19. At work on my book most
of the day. I sent a wire to Australia
today - the first for about two or three
weeks. I haven't wired lately because
the move was pending & I didn't want
to let it be known, even in Australia,
whether we were here or had left.
Left this night for Luxor, by Express,
with Gen. Bridges, Cols. Howse & Bird,
Maj: Glasfurd, Murphy, Casey & Ramsey.

Sat March 20:  Saw the Luxor temple,
Great Temple of Ammon at Karnak,
Temple of Mont, Temple of Khons, &
Temple of Mut. I wish I could write
something in the style of Rider Haggard.
The two brigadiers are also up here,
& five other officers.

Sund. March 21. The general & Col. Howse stayed
at Luxor. Howse says these ancient buildings