Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/96/1 - January 1918 - Part 2

9
like all Theosophists, that
the world is approaching the
condition in which Christ
will return to it as
a teacher - not to end it,
but as a teacher for a
stage, just as he came
before.He believes their
further tenet that, owing
to its spirituality & preparedness,
India is the country in
which Christ will probaly
teach. Jocks belief & that
of his fellow theosophists
is tt ti is their duty in
a quiet way to do all
they can to prepare / world
to be a fir place to the new
 

10
teacher.
The only thing which
wd divert him from his
present ideal of a life's work
in Australia wd be
if he were summonded by
/ leader of his faith to
undertake a duty put upon
him elsewhere. If Mrs
Besant (whom they believe
to be / foremost present
sub-teacher, & therefore / nearest
approach to / mouthpiece
of God) gave him an order
to come to India, he told
me, he wd give up any other
lif work & go there. And
one regret is that if it even
 

11
should come to a point
at which she told her
people tt they must fight
for the emancipation of
India, Jock he wd do so.
It wd be the sorest trial
to oppose his country but
he wd do so, whatever
it cost him, if she laid
this burden upon him.
It is with a heavy
heart that the old fellow faced
came the necessity  for this decision - but I
can see he has made considered it
as amongst / remote
contingencies of his beliefs -
& has made his decision. To
me it has / seeds of a great
tragedy in it – one only
prays the fates tt guide this
world tt it may not _∧ ever come
 

12
to be necessary. And yet if
India & Australia should
ever come to [[?]] & Jock
were on one side & I on
/ other - I know tt he
would be the great & the
good man ; & I the even
though / world despised
& condemned him ; &
I the weak one, though I
too shd be true to my
faith. His life - that of
an idealist who gave all for
his ideal - wd not have
bn lived in vain even so.
It is something that so
grand a man comes out of
Australia - for he is the
grandest man I know.
Gen. Foott let me have
a motor car in order to

 

13
run over to Codford &
Sutton Veny - and Longbridge
Diverill, where we have
three camps.
It was / first time
I had seen our English camps.
Sxx They are well arranged -
better built than / French
ones ; but, as in France,
the whole district around
each of them is filled w
Australian troops.
Codford, the first we
came to, is along / road
_∧ some miles past Salisbury, in
country not unlike that
of the Somme - rather

14
bare, grassy chalk hiills,
& / vill big pastures, not
tilled fields ; & the trees
mostly in woods regular clumps of
woods, or in / valleys,
or around villages.
Also there are those
curious banks made
by old ploughing such
as are in the Somme Country.
Codford, the first camp,
is tt o / 3^rd Training
Brigade. We used to
have 5 Brigades here, one
for each battalion ; but division in France.
now To them came all the
 

15
reinfts for those
divisions ; but now
we have sunk so low
in recruits that they have
bn reduced to three -
The 1^st (at Sutton Veny)
has is for the 1^st Divn 7 all
/ Pioneer Bns ; the 2ns is
for the 2^nd & 3^rd Divns ;
the 3^rd is for the 4^th  & 5^th
Divns. The 3^rd (Codford)
is, like / others, commanded 
by an officer sent
one of our colonels sent
over for / line being from
France because he needs
/ rest - Col. Herring, 45 Bn.
 

16
is the present one. Hilmer
Smith (12 Bn) has the 1^st ;
I dont know who has
the 2nd. There is fine
open land across on /
hill tops _∧ for training around exah
camp (they the camps are widely
apart from each other -
quite separate centres
in the country). for training.
To these thru to all
/ recruits, & only /
recruits ; &, now tt they
are under pretty good
experienced offrs, their
discipline is pretty good.

 

17
To the Overseas Training
Brigade – ( fourth brigade
go all the troops who
have been once in France
& have come to England
for one reason or another
- all the wounded, the
officers from cadet schools
at Oxford & Cambridge,
the prisoners at / end of
their sentences, / men
detached on schools, or
sent from service _∧ at the London
_∧or Salisbury Plain Hqrs back to ther units
in / Field. They are
the tough customers. Col.
"Billy" Watson, late of the

 

18
24^th Bn, is in charge there,
with little Grilles as Bde
major or Staff Captain - & he
has his hands full. The
prisoners some of them
habitually refuse to return
to France ; &  as you cannot
let a man get away from
France simply by refusing
to go there, they have to be
forced to do so.
The other day, on parade
at Codford, one man told
Watson in a loud voice tt he
ws not going back. He took
off his kit, facing Watson, &
threw it onto / ground.