Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/94/1 - November - December 1917 - Part 4

5 36
might pay homage to some sweet
goddess. She has dauntless courage,
& high spirit & yet such sweet
tenderness for all others that I
think goodness with her xxx
is a gift of genius. There is
noone I know who sees so straight
& quick what others are in need
of. I never get a parcel from
her but what it contains exactly
the things one needed; & often had
scarcely realised how much one
needed them until one had opened
it up. If she has some old diare
book or clothing or ^indoor playing-game
wh others wd discard, she sends
it straight to the very person,
somewhere in within the wide circle
of her sympathy, to whom it gives
real joy - I have never constantly
 

5 37
wondered at those shafts of
intuition & have never known
them miss their mark. It is a
wonderful power - but what is
more wonderful is the sweet address
with which each of her acts is done
- the Youthful fresh light in her
eyes with which she makes each
sweet action pass for ordinary everyday
matter of course - The old father
deserved her, a man of brilliant
intellect, entire unselfishness,
whom age has wonderfully mellowed;
& the hardest worker that I
have ever known.
Nov. 23. Went to 18 Bn & got their
story.
The British have taken

Bourlon - the lump of a hill wh used
to look at you wherever you stood from Noreuil
to Hermies. It looks into / back o / German line.
Nov.24. Went w Wilkins to Messines
 

38

^X at the 29 Bn HQrs (in the
old gun pit house by Delconick Frm.)
they had just received the London
papers o / day before.
Even in the Ypres battle the
26 Bn tell me they used to send
a runner on a bicycle back
to Poperinghe or thereabouts to
buy / London papers & bring
them up!
 

5 39
to get photos of the Douve Valley
the mine craters & the
Blaauwepoortbeek & Odd Trench.
I never saw a place so changed.
As we looked towards Warneton
you cd actually see a solitary
German battery firing - Wilkins
saw / flash distinctly - but tho'
we were photographing in / open
within a mile or less o / front line
not a shell came near us. ^X
The Col. Lord promised me
to get out for the Aust. War
Museums 2 of the bridges wh
his men put across the Douve
River & wh are still there.
On our way back Gen. McNicoll
where I ^called told me he had just given
the same order. They will be
most interesting exhibits some
day in the Aust. Museums. Wilkins
photographed ^one of them where they were it lay.
 

40

^X Germany will not recognise
the Russian Govt till / Russian Army
has retired 100 kilometres.
 

5 41
Nov 25.  To 19th Bn - who gave me
a fine ^rigidly truthful account o / battle
of Oct 9.
Lenin has finally captured
St Petersburg & Moscow apptly;
after defeating Kerensky; & is
making a separate peace w
Germany. The ^Russian Army has bn
ordered by him to disarm.
Lord Robert Cecil stated in /
Commons tt the allies might have
to do business w / Russian Gov
leaders, but they wd not
recognise the present Govt there.

Nov 26. (Sunday)
To the 20^th Bn. Old Ralston,
their Colonel has a great grit
[*Beieris*] in him. Byers of 19^th told me
tt on Oct 7 at 5 pm when a
devil of a barrage opened on
 

5 42
the support trenches on Broodseinde
N of the X Roads, & he went
out to becse a runner came in
saying "Our people are retiring -"
he went out & there sure eno'
were a number of our men
coming back on / hill crest. He
ws horrified. Then he heard a
shrill voice: You buggers! Come
up here will you - you - - 
- where the - are you getting
to." It ws old Ralston - it ws
the hour for him to move his battalion
he got tt coy further N & forwards
& this very heavy barrage caught
them in / middle of it.
They lost 60 men in tt barrage -
in A coy - but he got them through.
He is getting very gray - He
is apt to get excited in a critical
time but theres no doubt he is
brave - & w all his excitability
his battalion has a real affection
for him.
 

5 43
Nov 27.  To the 28^th Bn all day.
Our battalions are full of their
football, their sports; the 22 Bn
starting a newspaper; and a
debating socy. The brigades run
football competitions.
A letter from old Jock very
disappointed abt / failure of
Gen. Birdwood to approve of a plan
of his for giving Australians
some sort of antidote to the
"preventative" measures agst
Venereal Diseases instituted by
Howse. They poke under / nose
of every boy going on leave.
Whether he wants it or not, a
packet with a French letter, various
ointments & so on to be used when
he picks up a woman. Jock
sees - & he is right - enormous
dangers to the nation in this
practise. It is necessary in some
 

5 44
cases perhaps. He sees /
difficulty & admits tt Howse
may be right to take some
such step. "But at any rate"
Jock says "let them have the
other sort of help too". He wants
to start a crusade among /
men to join a "League of Honour"
to safeguard our racial purity -
for / sake of our future youngsters
& the stamina of our race. Jock
has done wonders among /
poor chaps he is surrounded
with at the V.D: hospital -
& he knows tt if you appeal
to / Australian rightly you
can get hold of / generous side
of him.
Archdeacon Ward has
been on a crusade round /
troops of the A.I.F. & if he cd
 

5 45
have got asked them to join some
such league it wd have bn
a help to / men: "I promise to
safeguard the purity of the
Australian race by continence
& restraint" - or some such simple
formula, is the pledge; the badge
an Australian boy standing before
an Australian flag; & the pledge
involves looking after a mate
if he is drunk as well as
looking after yourself.
When Archdeacon Ward wrote
to Birdie, B. referred / letter
to Howse - & Howse sd: Is
Ward mad? If he wernt It's a good thing he's going
to Australia for a holiday or
he wd go off his head! Doesn't
he know this is a primitive
instinct w men & you cannot
 

5 46
stop it". I wanted Jock or some
Doctor to follow Wards lectures
up - an earnest doctor wd
be better than Ward who does
not impress me at all, & it
wd be grand to bring this
force under old J's wonderful
influence; but B. was put off
by Howse's cynicism.
Now Howse is wrong for
all his ability. Cynicism takes
you nowhere, makes no ground,
does no good in / world; &
something can always be done
by appealing to / good in
Australians. Jock knows how
to do that.
There has bn heavy
firing up at Ypres all /
aftn & evg. 
 

5 47
Send in
German Disc.
_____________

28^th Nov. To the 25^th Bn. Photographed
their football team. The
battalions are just like a lot
of Oxford Colleges in the
October term - more keen
on their football for / moment 
than on anything else in /
world. The competitions are
mostly by brigades.

29^th Nov. A fine day so I went
up to Messines to get some
of the photos which I took
(all out of focus) on the last
visit - a couple of panoramas,
the Russian Sap across [shorthand],
the great mine crater near St Ives,
the upturned pillboxes - Everyone