Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/96/1 - January 1918 - Part 6

The Cambrai Lady.
Limbs.
Meat queues
Front CAI
Goeben [[?]] abt Jan. 22.
Gerrin - Hirsting
Germy afraid of air offensive.
Trotsky talking to Germans
 

49
week for bed & breakfast,
& 6d for zach bath. Here it is
₤2.30 a week for bed all
meals except lunch. Treloar
is coming here from next Monday-
& possibly Col. Butler also. Only
one soldier - an officer in the R.F.C.
is here at present.
Jan 24. Lunched with Mr Fisher.
He told me after lunch his real
objection to conscription in Australia
I think he feels sensitive to criticism
on the point, and was anxious to
give me the reason in his views - "If you
like I'll tell you," he said.
"I'm not blind to the fact that
conscription is logical," he said, "but
men are not logical." It is reccomended
(as I had suggested) & saves a lot of
waste - of putting the bosory men in
wrong places - I know & feel all that
as well as you do. But men

50
are not logical & you cannot
rule them by logic. I never believed
that - if conscription were carried
in Australia - you could enforce it.
I think you would have had terrible
trouble if the bill had been passed -"
"There has been great trouble, as it
is,". I admitted - "I see your
point - instead of getting the
recruits they have only managed
to divide Australia into two
bitterly hostile camps - the conscription
issue has raised furious antagonism."
"I don't believe that it was
worth it, to get the few men extra
who might have be gained by
conscription," he sd.
"Things are going all wrong
out there," he said sadly. "This a
very big worry to him, I can see ;
& to Mrs Fisher, too, he says. Fisher
 

51
takes it all to heart so much-
He can see that the australian
Goot instead of getting the anti-
conscriptionists on the right side (as
it cd do by putting them in power)
is making them (almost forcing
them to become) more & more hostile
to the war & to the Old Country.
Fisher does not like a
Coalition - "It's not straight, be
sd - "In the worst times as in the
best, the duty of an opposition
is to criticise if just could for criticism
arises; - because then - if it is a crisis
such as this war, after having made
its criticism, to stand aside & let
the Government act. The leaders of the
opposition are more helpful
that way than in office - because I
can tell you, Bean, that it is
one of the ways in which
a man elected to political office
 

52
can keep straight & clean-"
one can see tt this last
has been one o / principal
preoccupations of Fishers life
- how to keep simple & straight in
polities.
I paid a visit to
Southall hospital (for Austrlns with
leg amputations) yesterday in
order to see that the australian Red
Cross has done in I way of 
helping these men to support themselves,
Maj. Isaacs wretched effort of 
last you has quite fallen thro. (It
ws to be left a private committee
to provide ₤5,000 for a workshop.
I wired to australia that I sho be
a national officer - since then
nothing has been done here till lately.
 

770 passed tho Southall last year
40 move in Jan 1918
450 are there now.
 

53

The Red X (Australian) has 

now provided, at a cost of 

₤750, a small workshop for electrical
engineering, acetiflene welding, 
 & carpentering - the walls &
roof are up - & 1100 men have
passed into Southall (& 800 gone out
untrained) since the scheme was
mooted; o they are legs alone, -
arms now go out to Australia to
be fitted.
We went into a room where
There were 80 men without legs
& 4 officers, legless also. They
looked comfortable & most of them 

seemed a good intelligent class
of man.  There was a "leg parade"
on - that is to say, men who

were at the steps of being fitted

with legs were brought together
to try the new limbs & see whether

 

54
those just issued were of the
best sort for them, & good fits.
Some men had had them for
one day only, others for some
weeks. But the rule is tt they
had to appear at these parades
until they & Col. Gordon are satisfied
- the instrument makers representations
(a youngster who, I am told, has
2 sham legs) was there. The
officers, Graham Butler (who is
collecting our medical history),

Col. Gordon, Maj. Aspinall,
several legless officers &
myself sat or stood at one end o'
room & one o' men sitting
around ws told to walk up
room towds Gordon, & then away
again & up again. Each one
ws discussed - The firms
representation ws told what
ws wrong w / leg & had to
 

55
note it & get it altered or
changed. Some walk
walk only with sticks;
The blue trousers of these men are
made in two halves so tt they
can take off 1 half wh covers
their false leg. Some men
could walk w sticks only. 

Balance on 1 one leg was difficult;
Some others cd walk without sticks;
& one walked so well tt / Colonel
asked if he could run. He said
he cd run - & he ran / length
o / room - a lopsided sort of
a hop of a run, all the spring
in it being done with every
alternate step when / good leg
ws on / ground - but still
a real run.

One nice looking chap 
- a big fellow from Queensland if
South Australia - had lost
 

Flers

Nov 5.
 

56
both legs. I asked him when?
He said "November 5th," He was
in the dreadful attack by the
27^th abn & / rest of 7^th Bde on
the trenches near / maze.
When they scrambled up & got
over, he sd, / Germans
were waiting for them thickly
in their trenches - as plain as
day. The m.g fire became
very hot & the line was
stopped & got into shellholes
at this part. In his shellhole
a German shell caught him,
shattered one leg; &, either then
or later, a fragment caught
him on / back of / head head &
knocked him silly for a couple
of days.

It was cold & so he did

 

57

not suffer from thirst - he had
plenty of water, anyway.
They He crawled at night
abt 50 yards towards our lines
& then gave it up finally.
He was hit on Sunday, the day
o / attack; on Thursday night
the 5th Battalion made a raid or
had a patrol out. The, Germans
wounded some of their men;
of the stretcher bearers out for
the 5^th Bn men found this
man of the 27th. They put
him on a stretcher but all /
s/bs were hit by m.g. bullets.
The next day they came out
under a white flag w a
stretcher & carried the
wounded in. The Germans
had been very quick to shoot
on any man moving before
 

58
this. He was taken by 3 horses
on a sleigh across the mud.
The dressing station he
was taken to was shelled;
& the casualty clearing station,
far back near the rly was
bombed. The shattered leg was
amputated & the other leg had to be
cut off owing to frostbite.
It is one of the worst
wonderful cases tt I have
heard, because / weather
was cold wild winter, &
the Ground horrible.
The men at this hospital
have a preference for one
particular leg - the leg w a
leather bucket, where, the
weight is borne mostly
by the grip of / leather sleeve,
& not by the stump. On /
whole the C.O. lets / men have
/ leg they prefer even if he