Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/94/1 - November - December 1917 - Part 5

5    48 
ws rather shy of one standing
up near them - & I fancy they
are right.  The line has reached
/ stage at wh the German marks
down for routine shelling any
place where he sees movement.
We photo soon ran into
his shelling - a long shot or
two wh I thought meant for
us - I fancy they were.
Later, in the Douv  Further down he ws giving the place
fits - somewhere near the
front.  Later, in / Douve
Valley he began to shell /
duckboards.  We dodged
past.  But before we got
back from / front line 1½ hours
later, he had hit the duckboard
walk 4 times direct with 5.9.
We gave him gas projector
the other night.  They put it down
to this.  Perhaps so - but there

5    49
was a lot of movement, &
 I daresay he (rightly) suspected
tt a relief ws happening.  It
happens tonight - 38^th going in
for the 40.  Col. Lord gave us for the
museums a wooden shoe found near
Grey Farm;  & a German message balloon
we carried home a broken duckboard.
Nov 30.  With the 26^th Bn.
Dec 1.  Today at breakfast Adddison
dropped something about a letter
written by Lord Lansdowne
yesterday in the "Daily Telegraph".
"The Times" wd not publish it,
& that is how the D most people
only heard of it today.  It is
a suggestn tt we shd come to terms
w Germany by negotiation;  that
it is absurd to think of
restricting trade after / war;  tt
some of our war ends are now
unattainable & others may
well be changed, & tt we cannot

5    50 
think of attempting to interfere
with Germany's internal
constitution - or upsetting the
Hohenzollerns.
That is to say just when things
look bad in Italy;  on / very day
when / papers announce that
Germany has decided to accept
Russias offer to negotiate &
throw her allies over - &, I suppose,
release all / German & Austrian
prisoners to fight against us -
Lord Lansdowne has thought fit
to chuck up the the sponge.
This letter may quite well
lose the Canadian election &
our Australian Referendum.
Of course Lord Lansdowne & a
good part of the wealthy classes
in England are not fighting for
democracy - but our people
& most o / British are - for

5    51
democracy at all costs.  Even
such an old Tory as Gen. Carruthers,
here, dear old chap, here is ready to
become a Socialist for the cause 
of right.  But some of these English
are more than half hostile to
democracy;  they are afraid of
"disturbing the masses" more
than of the German rule of might
before right.  The "Morning Post"
has sd tt if this were a fight for
democracy many of "us" wd
not be fighting it.
There seems to be dissension
everywhere apparent on our side -
the "Daily Mail" lecturing Canada,
the Russian Govt more hostile to us
than to Germany - far more bitter
in its tone - the Railway strike
in England.
I ws today w / 20 Bn from

5    52
N.S.W.ales. Col Ralston told me tt
there ws something wrong in /
battalion at / moment - he
cd not quite say what;  but he
had not his hand on / pulse
of it.  He thinks it is the political
Campaign for Conscription.  There
is some under current there wh
is making old Ralston just a
bit anxious.  They have some
very great blackguards in the
guard room who are not doing
the battalion much good, perhaps.
Ralston thinks there is just
a little feeling for these
deserters, not against them -
men who desert constantly are
not popular - are hated as a
rule - but some feeling seems
to exist for these men.
We met an abnormal
number of men coming back from

52a 
DECEMBER   1, 1917. 
LENIN'S ENVOYS. 
SUNDAY VISIT TO
THE ENEMY. 
BY TRAIN TO BREST.
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
PETROGRAD, Nov, 29.
An answer has been received from the
German Commander-in-Chief on the Russian
front respecting the conduct of the peace negotiations
 launched by Lenin's Commander-in-Chief,
Krilenko.  The answer contained six
paragraphs and is as follows:-
1.The German Commander-in-Chief on the Eastern
front is ready to enter into negotiations with the
Russian Commander-in-Chief.
2.The German Commander-in-Chief is authorized
by the German High Command to negotiate an armistice.
3.The Russian Commander-in-Chief must appoint
a committee duly authorized in writing and sent it
to the German Eastern headquarters.
4.The German Commander-in-Chief will likewise
appoint a duly authorized committee.
5.The German Commander-in-Chief must be in-
formed of the day and hour appointed in sufficient
time to make necessary arrangements to prepare a
special train to the place where the Russian committee
 purpose crossing the German lines.
6.The Germans will arrange direct telegraph
communications between the committees and the
Russian Higher Command.
(Signed)  VON HOFMEISTER, Lieutenant-General
Commanding a Division.
An official bulletin states that Second Lieutenant
Schneur, the members of the 5th [Dvinsk]
Army Committee, the Military Dr. Sagalovitch,
and Volunteer Meren were empowered to open
negotiations for an armistice, and advanced
under the white flag towards the German positions.
They were met by German officers and
taken to von Hofmeister's divisional headquarters,
where they awaited till they received
the answer given above.
The Den publishes to-day a divisional order
to the 218th German Division, signed by Major
General Kreinburg, Commander of the 62nd
Brigade, as follows:-
NUMBER 266, SECRET.  NOT TO BE TAKEN TO
FIRST-LINE TRENCHES.
According to headquarters instruction No. 2,098,
immediate and energetic measures must be taken for
carrying on propaganda among the enemy's forces.
The object is to disorganize the enemy Army and get
information.  Propaganda must be carried on by
supplying literature to the more intelligent elements
and by conversation through carefully chosen men
among the mass of the Russian soldiers.
Minute instructions follow how, when, and where
this propaganda is to be conducted, and how reports
are to be made to the German Command. 

5    53
the Steenwerck pubs _^more than half was over - you cd tell
it ws 8 pm. without looking at your
watch -
Count Hertling ^the new German Chancellor in ^his first speech
to the Reichstag on Nov 29 sd tt
German arms were successful almost
everywhere;  & what is more
important he sd, X while promising
some internal reforms in Germanys
Constitution:  "of the fundamental
principles of our Imperial
Constitution nothing can nor shall be
changed."  They wd do only what
corresponded to German spirit &
German characteristics & not
initiate other constitutions.
In other words their autocratic
Constitution has made them so strong
that they will continue in it as the
ideal thing for them.  They have
plunged themselves & / world in /
greatest misery / world ever

5    54
underwent - a grand boast
When will / German people see it?
Dec 2.  Col Church came up from:
G.H.Q to see abt our photographers.
White & Dodds & I saw him & White
talked to him - & settled him - &
took him into lunch.  He is honest,
is Church, & square.  But he
did not know the business.
The Germans have attacked
S. of Cambrai & tried to turn the tables
-they reached our guns & tried
to cut off the salient but failed.
The more they c-attack the better.
We have the initiative & they the
losses.
The cutting from "the Times" _^pinned opposite shows
what one hates ab / German - here is[*XXXX*]
his Socialist party conniving at the sheer
purexx hoodwinking of the & entrapping
of the Russian Socialists.

5    55
Dec. 3  Came to 1st Divn at Samer. 
Found Blamey, Witham there
visiting them to arrange about the Referendum
 - He & Blamey, & Huxtable &
young Dean, who like Gen. Holmes
son, Basil Holmes, & Copplestone
& other promising Australian officers
is just taking up a Commission
in the Indian Army.  I dislike
this policy - within 10 years _^they are apt to become like Guy
Wylly, ^ who became an offr in the India after getting the VC in Africa, half hostile to
the Australian
attitude, & entirely undemocratic.
Blamey & Viney were discussing
Gen Holmes.  Blamey sd tt
when the 3rd Divn ws to be formed,
while the Divns were in Egypt, Gen.
Monash wrote to Holmes telling
him tt he heard tt a British offr
ws to be appointed to command
it - asking him if he were going
to take any steps _^to prevent it, & saying tt if
he were not, he (Monash) would do

5     56
so w all his force. Holmes ws
senior to Monash & had commanded the 2nd Divn.
Holmes replid tt he did not
intend to take any steps.
Monash got / Divn - he ws
asked for from Australia.
it is very typical o / two.
Monash has his capacities,
great lucidity in grasping what
has to be done & explaining it;
but such a desire to make out the
best case for himself after the
event, that he accepts any
pretty story wh is put up to him;
a truthful candid battalion
commander therefore gets less
favour in his eyes than one
whose ^battalion has fr not done so well
but who is ready to tell a 
pretty story about it.  Monash for
this reason has not the slightest
grasp of what has happened in
action - he never has had.
His ambition makes him an
undergound engineer - he has the

5    57
Jewish capacity for worming
silently into favour without seeming
to take any steps towards it, although
people many are beginning to suspect that
he does take steps.  Holmes was
a thousand times too proud to do
any such thing.
The B.G.G.I., Charteris, has
prohibited an little article I wrote for
the 2nd Divnl. School magazine,
describing what the 2nd Divn did
at Pozieres;  at least he cut all the
battalion numbers out of it.  Lytton
says he argued with him for half an
hour over it, & Charteris refused.  Lytton
reminded him of what the C. in C. had
said to me.  Charteris told him:  "I
"think I am the person best able to
"interpret _^what Gen. Haig S said."  So Lytton
had to let it go.
I told Lytton tt next time I got a 
promise from Gen. Charteris I would