Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/84/1 - August 1917 - Part 7

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they still refuse, the two
companies are sent along
to their country, & burn
down their village, &
take their cattle – The
people they punished are
/ very first task for
protection afterwds. Xxx So
each administrator lives there,
protecting & improving & fighting
for his particular tribe or
tribes. They may be the most
awful set of scoundrels, or /
most miserable wretches in
existence, but he always thinks
them the pick o / earth. He lives
for & thinks for & sometimes
dies for them, & it is a 

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most deadly insult to him
to criticise them unfavourably.
(It is much / same in /
India Civil Service). A certain
number of these people are
trained at / Gordon College
at Khartoum & sent back to
improve the village life by
teaching / trades & setting the
standard higher etc.
The Egyptian is not
so popular w / English as
/ Soudanese & other blacks.
They are as accustomed to
slavery tt they are servile &
despised by almost everyone.
Butler sd tt he did know
two Egyptians whom he
ws very fond of. One ws /
 

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old fat ^Egyptian adjutant of his
Sudanese Regiment; & / other
ws a Company commander
in it. The old adjutant had to
run Egyptian Officers & Soldiers
up before him for / almost
invariable charge of sodomy
wh /  English choose to treat as
conduct unbecoming of an officer
& a gentleman. Butler
says tt when / old adjutant
read out / charge he almost
always broke into tears & began
to beg / prisoner off: "Have
mercy, Effendi - He is so young;
he is but a boy... "with copious
tears. Sometimes ^when this ws proceeding Butler had 
/ adjutant & / prisoner & /
prisoner's guard - all weeping.
He used to say - "Oh dry up -  

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dont be such a damned
fool." The Egyptians cdnt
understand our objection
to sodomy. One officer charged
w it broke into tears &
pleaded: "Oh, but I loved him
so."
Well - it is a great
quality these British public
school men show there - It
is a very remarkable fact
that although the Sudan is
crammed w / the most fanatical
ignorant Mahomedans, with
every sort of influence brought 
to bear on them by / Germans &
Turks to get them into revolt,
yet it is / one place where
no suspicion of revolt or   

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unrest has showed itself. That
is a wonderful result & /
personal devotion & influence
of a handful of unselfish
generously minded men.
It is in these things tt /
English are wholly admirable.
It ought not to be impossible
to reproduce tt sort of man &
tt sort of attitude in our
whole nation.
Saw the 1st & 3rd Bdes
pass by today. I shd say
Milligans 2nd Bn is /  best
in / whole force; though Neligan
will make something of /  10^th 
& Steel something of / 11^th The
11^th certainly looked the hardest. 

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Griffiths has suggested a
second - young photographer
a xx xxxx young officer from the A.F.C. who
is colour. blind. I have put
to White & Faunthorpe a
scheme by which the senior
photographer & is responsible
for / picturesque & press
work; & the junior for
seeing tt every historically
important place or event is
recorded - two quite different
departments. The British
dont - or havent begun to -
attempt to keep the latter sort
of record- an irremediable loss.
We have kept it, after a fashion.
 

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Aug. 10 About dawn I was
woken by the burr of aeroplane
propellers. The young French
[[major?]] in / next room knocked
at / door. But although
bombs were shaking / house
& the concussion of guns ws
constant - they were at a distance.
Outside - 3 small lights sailing
steadily over - a little south of / road.
Showed where one of our
aeroplanes ws making homeward.
The whir of propellors came &
went for an hour - in my
half sleepy half frightened
consciousness they were like the
hum of the mosquitoes wh were
also attacking.
Then, before breakfast
came the bang of the big gun
shells - from near Perenchies. 

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About 3 of them before breakfast.
3 or 4 more about lunch. One
fell in / prison next to / Generals
house & made / biggest crater
I ever saw, & blew half /
side o / prison house down
(exposing / tumbled cots &
mattresses o / French prisoners
who had bn sent away to Cassel.
A great part of / nose of
this shell fell  went clean over
the Mairie & fell through the
front window of our mess.
So Gen. Birdwood is having some
narrow escapes.
My landlady wants
to get rid of me but I have
stuck my toes in.
The people of this town
think it it is the 1^st Anzac staff tt
/ Germans are aiming at in
Hazebrouck - bt it is really 

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the rly stn & ammn. dump
near it. The result is
tt we are not popular.
One Director of Remounts of
the 2nd Army - or some such
official - when the shelling
started, ^got everyone laughing- & talking- by
jumping in his car,
& left his clerks & his horses
& everything else & made
straight for the country
(possibly on a quite legitimate
errand). But some of /
landladies of Hazebrouck
are very sarcastic about
it - "it doesnt increase
confidence" they say.