Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/84/1 - August 1917 - Part 5

7 48
lines, next / aerodrome
at Bailleul. The Germans
shelled & bombed / place
& Gough as ordered, ^ by G.H.Q. to place
his HQs further back.
That is one good point
in him for a commander, anyway
Dined at N.Z. HQs Steenwerck
where Ross & Reid are getting out
a N.Z. Book for Christmas. Ther
was heavy firing in / North.
Gen. Russell told me that the Basse
Ville fight ws on a very small
scale, but tough while it lasted.
Rain ends. Finer weather - hot, sunny threatening
Aug. 6. At home all day writing
(fine day) Griffiths & House here. Settled
tt Gallett shd come over. Also 2nd
Photographer suggested by Griffiths.
Aug 7.
Gerards letter book published
in "Daily Telegraph".
The fire in N on Aug 5 was
 

49
 

x we went over &
found tt it ws Big Gen.
F. E. Johnston of the Infantry
- not the Artillery Johnston.
who had bn k. He had
just returned & gone to /
N.Z. 3rd (Rifle) Bde & ws shot
thro' / heart  by a sniper
while looking over / trench at
Coy HQs. on a morning
inspection
 

7  50
clearly German attack on
Hollebeke. They took it but
were pushed out again.
Day misty & slightly damp-
no rain so far (10 am.)
tard Chermside 
xxxxxx said at lunch tt
he heard Gen. Johnston x of N.Z
Arty had be killed. This is the
gallant little N. of Ireland man
whom Godley had so antagonised.
J has done splendid work,
commdg the NZ Arty since / beginning
O / war; but ly he has only got
a  D.S.O. - others - all our Aust.
arty generals - have C.Bs or
C.M. Gs, or both. J puts it
down to Godley - & I daresay
it is so. xx  J talks so
straight. He says tt Godley
told him he ws sorry tt he
had not obtained any
(Johnston) has not obtained any
 

7     51
decoration - "but in my estimation
they count for very little." he
added.
"That can hardly be so, Sir,"
J retorted - "I dont notice ^tt any
generals refuse them" - This
for Godley who has been getting
Servian & Belgian decorations
K.C Bs etc.
Gerards article about
the Kaisers telegam to Pres.
Wilson is awfully illuminating.
It gives one a shock to think
tt / war may have originated
not in / Kaisers evil will but
in his vain muddleheadeness.
The way in wh he mistakes the
purport of what the English
King & Foreign Secy told him
is appalling. One can see
this vain self satisfied monarch
 

7     58
sitting down at his table, w
telegraph forms around him,
to arrange peace much as
some vain old lady would
arrange a meeting for the
benefit of the indigent
Patagonians. He bungles
one telegram & hxts
blunders another & then
sits down, xxx  reading
them all to his own vain
hasty way of thinking, &
satisfied that he & no one
Else is all-happily arranging
this xxx road to peace.
"Thought of it myself first
though they thought of the same
thing later," he says -
when he finds that
something has suddenly gone
wrong & these perverse people
say they have meant something that
 

53
x he insists on writing to
Kings, not to their Govts, bec. he
thinks the Kings mean something
different from their Govts.
 

7   54
quite different from
what he intended them to
mean x - & so he bungles
into war like a mismanaging
old busy body; in this century!
But one must not 
make the mistake of
putting it all down to /
Kaiser or /  weak Bethmann
Hollweg (who came to Gerard
privately to find out what /
Kaiser had written - what 
a government for a civilian
state.) Unquestionably
behind / kaiser there were
far cleverer men who knew
how to use his weaknesses.
Military Germany did not
blunder into war by mistake
- the military chiefs clinched
their opportunity for war thro' the
Kaisers blunders.
 

7  55
Our 1st Divn. today xxx
or tomorrow goes to Doulieu,
The 2nd Anzac Corps has bn
dispossessed of this ground. Also
we shall have a divn of
2nd anzac added to us; &
the 4th Div. Arty ws brought
today from / spoil bank SE
of Ypres (by 2nd Div Arty) down
to near Armentieres. We
saw them near Steenwerck
some of the bties have had
heavy losses at Ypres. 5th
Div. Arty is still up on front of
Menin gate & has had an
easier time.
This all means (1) either
tt G.H.O wants / area where
the 1st Divn were; or (2)that
 

56
the British Govt has bn
asked by Australia to
xx put our 2 corps together;
or (3) tt they intend to
use us in tt part- we
thought it wd be somewhere
quite different - near Bikschoote
The Australian Govt, Howse
& Griffiths tell me, has dexxx
wired asking Gen. Birdwood to
say what British offrs in
the 2 corps are indispensable
as it is / Govts intention to
fill the positions on Divl & Corps
staff w Australian offrs,
though recognising gratefully
the valuable services  help of
British offrs in / past.
 

7   57
This means Butler, Taylor,
Walker, Smyth, Lesslie &
others will probly have to go.
one wd be sorry to lose all
these & also Carruthers - although
Carruthers & Walker possibly
ought to go through their powers
being not what they were.
It is hard on Walker &
Lesslie. L. has at present
/ best Bde in / force.
Hobkirk also ad be a
great loss. Witham & Blamey
& Gellibrand & Foote cd replace
Lesslie, Hobkirk, Smyth & Carruthers,
& Lotbiniere cd readily be
replaced. But White will miss Osborne
Howse is / author of this method. & it is
Effective. I suppose it ought to come; but
I rather hate this way of doing it
 

Messines
 

 7    58
white tells one he wd have
no hesitation in making
Osborne ^(who ws born in Australia) either a B.G.G.S
or a cavalry Bdier, Why
is be only a captain in /
British army?
Johnston Says tt Lt.
Hanna, a N. Zealander, in /
British Artillery, took out a
telephone line & observed the wire cutting
in /  difficult Steenbeck
gully at Messines from
a shell hole 40yds
away in Nomansland.
Canada seems likely 
to pass conscription - they
have appointed 6 more
members o / Senate to give
/ govt a majority there & make
/ bill safe. I cant help thinking 
This is dangerous ^ & likely to react heavily later ; & the
 

?Aug 9
 

7  59
does involuntarily, feel bitterly 
jealous of / credit & /
increased forces wh Canada
will get out of her conscription
although one feels certain tt /
people there are no move in
favour of it than in Australia,
it is being passed by avoiding
the putting of / question to them.
The feeling is wrong & it doesn't
make for / winning o / war- but
I cannot help it - tt xx one wd
dislike to see conscription passed
in Canada after failing in
Australia. And yet it wd be
a set back- & one wd regret it to
see it fail.
Aug. 10. This morning I
was waked by an antiair
craft gun belting away
into the sky. Overhead was