Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/95/1 - December 1917 - January 1918 - Part 4

9                                 28

to hang ones head over ones

country. After all, Australia

with less than 5,000,000 white

people has sent away more

divisions than Canada, New

Zealand, & S. Africa put together.

And Canada has 8,000,000

people - or 6,000,000 without

I French. The proportion we

not sorted have sent must

also not be compared to I

number of troops raised

by Great Britain, but to I

number sent abroad.

If Britain counts her home -

-service units, so can we.

 

However - it is sad -

It means, I'm afraid, I break up

9                               29

of the 4th Divn.

 

23 Dec. At Montreuil,

titling, putting dates, place 

& exact subject as far as

I can remember it, on

450 of Baldwins photographs.

These were before we had

our proper system of titling

wh ^ours is still the only record wh

is systematically titled, I believe.

 

Gen. Charles has bn

recalled to England. It is 

optimism, I believe, ws his

chief xxx defect; it infected

everyone who went to G.H.Q - 

Haig, Asquith, all of them xxx ^were

saying th I Germans cdnt last.

Charteris ws Military Secy to

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Haig before he became

B.G. Intelligence; & I daresay

his optimism ws really just

loyalty - an anxiety to

protect Haig & keep up I idea

th all w going well.

 

I believe one or two, Brig.

Generals are going on acct. of

Cambrai. Perhaps it's central;

but I real fact seems to me

to be w I people who either

(i) used this splendid plan of attack

on an occasion when it

could not be pushed right

through because of I impossibility

of getting reserves, no reserves

existing;

or (2) failed to provide a reserve, if

a reserve did exist. They

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All the ^Say at the War Correspts

H.Qrs, (where my temporary

driver & I are staying I night)

th the attack partly failed

because I bridge wh I cavalry

were to have used over

I canal ws broken dwn

by a tank, Some o I

Cavalry crossed by a

much more southerly ^bridge a good way further

down - & I Canadians, 

who went ahead there, came

back on foot after some hours,

having lost most of their horses.

Also they say th I Germans Reserves

reached an important line of

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trenches 10 minutes before our

men. The 107^th Divn, on wh we

had not calculated, happened

to be staying in Cambrai th 

night.

 

A great shock - Cadge

told me that Noel Ross was

dead. The boy was only abt

26, the only son of Malcom 

Ross, my great & close friend.

Noel landed with the Wellington

Infantry Bn, I think it was,

on Gallipoli; & after 3 days

fighting on Russells Top in

a trench occupied by Australians,

ws found, unconscious

but otherwise unhurt, lying

outside I trench, apparently

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thrown there by a shell.

He ws carried down to I Beach;

Malcom Ross, arriving next

month In Cairo as War Correspt

for N. Zealand, heard for I first

time by an accident th I boy

ws wounded & in hospital there.

 

Noel ws incapacitated &

discharged from the N.Z.Exp. Force;

While he ws in hospital he

dictated, more for amusement

than anything, an account of

his three days experiences & his

father sent it to "The Times". It 

ws brilliant journalism -

bright, terse, brimful of colour &

9                                           34

incident, convincingly detailed-

as good a battle article as ever

I have read.

 

In England he wrote (to 

the Times) a description of the

first Anzac Memorial Service.

His paralysis gradually disappeared

and he obtained a commission

w I British Arty but his

nervous system ws continually

breaking down & he ws missing

months of work - so he

ws discharged again.

 

One day at a luncheon

given by his people

at the Westminster Hotel he

was asking me what I

thought he cd do -go back out

to France to help his father

or what? I told him th if I 

were he I wd go & see the

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"Times" - they knew him

& I believed they wd take

him on. He asked me to

speak to Malcom Ross - & the

plan was tried - the Times took 

him. In his very first article

he justified his appointment

many times over. He wrote them

delightful little sketches of

fancy talks with an old crone

on the Highland hills - who 

spoke of wars that had been

before, in his clan - & of a war

that was raging at I moment

in wh I clan ws still fighting

-articles on I Devon Moors,

on I Navy - a brilliant series;

on the prisoners in Switzerland

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The Times ley him write as 

they allowed no one else to 

write - with imagination

& fancy. He was in my mind

easily their most brilliant

man. Kipling inquired after

him & had him to stay; he

found himself at the Astors,

sitting after dinner with

Astor, & Balfour, & Robertson,

& Milner; on the naval tour

he ws the centre of all I

old pressmen there, Hurd &

Fiennes & I rest; he got up

& made a speech to them

about his fancies of Edinburgh

or Aberdeen or wherever they

were, & his genius kept

9                                           37

hem in a spell - He was a

voracious reader & remembered

everything he read - verbatim,

as often as not. He wrote for

Punch - & he had just published'

a little skit on Country House

manners, hints for Colonial 

officers, who mightn't know;

He was engaged to a Sydney

girl, ^by name Buchanan & he was to have been

married shortly - Ross & Mrs

were giving up their

house ^Holly Tree Cottage at Hampstead to him

-when he caught typhoid. He 

was ill for three weeks & apparently

improving, when his constitution

which had never properly

recovered from th wound

at Anzac, failed him, & 

he died.

9                                   83 

state war aims which

Germany will not accept

yet, & I think they intend

to fight to get them - rectifications

of Alsace Lorraine, of the Italian

boundary, of the subject people

of Turkey, & the German colonies

in accordance w I will of

the people. It sounds rather

absurd to consult the Papuans,

but I daresay there is a real

principle in it tho' I shd say 

I true principle there wd be to

secure I defence of Australia &

N.Z. by not handing those colonies

back except to a democracy 

& perhaps even then asking 

for an exchange of them for

something in Africa. But when

one looks at it I other way &

asks if we shd hand back to

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wretched Hereros, to I

German system wh deliberatelty

tries to wipe them out of

S.W. Africa (I have read

a German professors confession

of this); or I Syrians or

Armenians back to I

Turks, wh have murdered

a great part of them, it

wh seems selfishly weak to 

do so if we can avoid it.

 

The English will not

or cannot see- at least

their ruling classes cannot - 

that the Russian socialists

are men of earnestness &

principle. I feel th whatever

I revolution brings to Russia,

it is a tremendous benefit

to her; one feels th she

has entered the community

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of liberal notions in spite

of all her difficulties &

one trusts & hopes th the

old regime there can never

return again - th I great

beginning is made.

 

English comment is almost

all bitterly cold, suspicious,

& unsympathetic tods the

Russian Govt.

 

President Wilson, on I

other hand, noticing this

very coldness in Lloyd

George speech, has made

this reference to Russia

full of sympathy & a desire

to help. If he regains the

assistance of Russia, it

will be approved by the

unsympathetic newspapers

of England (there are exceptions)

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But he is right, I am

sure, whether they help us

again or not.

 

Jan.11. The Germans have

had to forbid their soldiers 

on I Russian front to

fraternise. They are finding

th I very practice by wh

they won their Russian

Armistice is now

unsettling their own soldiers.

They don't hesitate to go

back on it.