Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/97/1 - January - February 1918 - Part 1

AWM138
Official History,
1914-18 War: Records of  C W Bean,
Official Historian.
 

Diaries and Notebooks

Item number:  3DRL606/97/1
 

Title: Diary, January - February 1918
Includes letters to and from Sir Henry Gullett in
Egypt.
 

AVMG8-3DRL606/97/1
 

No 1 Set Copy
Diary 97

Jan 25 - Feb 2. 1918
 1st Set diary No 97

3DRL 606Item 97 [1]
 DIARIES AND NOTES OF C. E. W. BEAN CONCERNING THE WAR OF 1914-1918 The use of these diaries and notes is subject to conditions laid down in the terms of gift to the Australian War Memorial. But, apart from those terms, I with the following circumstances and considerations to be brought to the notice of every reader and writer who may use them.These writings represent only what at the moment of making them I believed to be true. The diaries were jotted down almost daily with the object of recording what was then in the writer's mind. Often he wrote them when very tired and half asleep; also, not infrequently, what he believed to be true was not so -- but it does not follow that he always discovered this, or remembered to correct the mistakes when discovered. Indeed, he could not always remember that he'swritten them.These records should, therefore, be used with great caution, as relating only what the author, at the time of writing, believed. Further, he cannot, o course, vouch for the accuracy of statements made to him by  others and here recorded. But he did try to ensure such accuracy by consulting, as far as possible, those who had evidence (on which a large proportion of war stories are founded) was impressed upon him by the second or third day of the Gallipoli campaign, notwithstanding that those who passed on such stories usually themselves believed them to be true. All second-hand evidence herein should be read with thisin mind.

16 Sept, 1946.
C. E. W. BEAN.

DIARY

from 25th January, 1918, onwards 

97
 1918 January 25thThe old "Goebeh" and 'Breslau" have come into notice again. They seem to have made a sortie with a viewto smashing up our base at Imbros, and also sinking the monitorsthere, which are very weak vessels without any speed or armour-practically floating batteries for the bombardment off land defences. The two Turkish ships, still entirely manned by Germans, came out in the grey dawn a few days ago (I think itwas January 22) When they were in the act of the bombardment of Kephalos, and the Goeben was making very good practice withher heavy guns, the Breslau suddenly struck a mine and sank.I cannot imagine whether they trusted to there being no mine fields near there, or whether they possibly could have thoughtthat the British were so foolish as not to lay mines at all;
anyway, on discovering that the Breslau had run into a mine field, the Goeben, which had already sunk the big monitorRaglan, and a smaller one (I think MAS)turned homewards and herself ran into a mine at the mouth of the Dardanelles.She was run ashore off Nagara Point and since then our naval planes have been bombing her, trying desperately to increase the damage so as to finish her once and for all. The Turks havebrought up their ^anti air-craft guns in afurious hurry, but ournaval aeroplanes have made the place too hot for the oldTurkish cruiser which was assisting the Goeben, and for the tug, or salvage ship, which lay beside her, both having clearedoff up the Dardanelles. The prominence the Dardanelles have gained after all these months, makesone realise what an enormous advantage it would have proved to the Allied side if only we could have cut the Turk completely off from Asia Minor.The Labour Party is holding its conference at Nottingham. The war has enormously increased the strength of

Labour, and in  every country engaged - with the possible
exception of Jap an- the first preoccupation of the Govern-

ments before taking any drastic steps, seems to be now-a-days
to consult their respective Labour Parties. The British
Labour Party has just thrown its ranks open to brain workers
as well as hand workers, which probably means a great access of
strength. I don't know what their plans are,  but Mr. Fisher
and Box seem to think that the obvious plan will be for Labour
to let the present Government have he onus of making peace,
and not to  attempt  to shoulder this unpopular task itself.
After the war it is thought that Labour's best chance will be
to come in on the top of the wave of popular discontent, which
is certain to come along sooner or later,One factor in causing discontent as the year goes on, is certain to be the food problem. I never noticed any queues
in front of the  shops in London before last October. Now theyare more common and longer than any you see in France, The distribution is said to be the same to rich and to poor, but ifthat is so, the w ealthy class have much easier means of getting
their goods from the shops, for there is only a sprinkling of educated people amongst the queues. These are rather distress-ing sights  to watch - women with their babies, shaky old men,boys and girls from the East End, with a policeman or two on the pavement seeing that the rank is kept. Possibly ignorance
of what to eat and  where to get it, may have something to do with the queues, but there is the seed of a good deal of trouble in it if the Government does not produce a much more effective organisation when it starts its partial rationing system next
month,

January 26
During the last few days the papers have been full
of the speeches made by Czernin in Austria and Hertling in
Germany about peace, with reference to President Wilson and Lloyd

George's Peace terms. The Austrians would clearly be willing
to make peace any moment on the basis of no annexations and no
indemnities. Czernin definitely stated that he was not going
to be frightened by any Fatherland party in Germany into altering
this attitude. Germany, as represented by Hertling, on the
other hand will not give any definite promise to evacuate
Belgium or the Russian Provinces or any other conquered country,
There seems to be a very definite split between the two. The
secret of the anxiety of the moderate party in Germany is their
fear lest the German Military leaders, in their present spirit,
burating with confidence, may plunge the country into an offen-

sive on the Western Front and get another million Germans
killed or wounded. Indeed, at present the peoples of all
countries are rather afraid of their own offensives. The only
one offensive in which exists  any confidence, outside the Generals, is
that of the Americans, whenever it is launched,
The British  newspapers are perplexed as to whether they
should favour Trotsky and the Bolsheviks, or look at them as
having sold our common cause. The Ukraine Republic, which,
because it opposes the Bolsheviks, most of them favour, seems
to have practically made peace, or very near it, The Bolsheviks
on the other hand are still facing the Germans at Brestlitovsk,
telling them home truths there, talking to them in a way in which
German generals never expected to be spoken to this side of
heaven, and publishing candid criticisms of their terms and
their diplomacy by wireless throughout the world. It is an
opportunity such as no democrat ever had before, and they really
seem to be making some headway by their frankness, in spite of
all scepticism which it met at first. - At any rate, the very
outspoken xxxxx messages of the Russian Trotsky seems to be the main
cause of the Austrian ferment and the growing anxiety of the
moderate party in Germany

January 27th
To-day I went to St. Paul's. It was about the
endof the morning service, midday. The deep shades and soft
lights of the cathedral are a perpetual joy. One was sitting 

by a pillar not far from the entrance. On One's left front (as
they say in these days) was Wellington's tomb. The space
under the dome by the nave was under very dark shadow, the
congregation there just a dark obscure mass with a suggestion
of many heads. Beyond, under the black arched recess of the
chancel was the white marble reredos, which shewed up in a dim
patch of hazy white light. Five bright electric clusters
shewed up against the arched, brown woodwork of the choir,
like the gold wound-bars on a soldier's sleeve, and the echoes
of the organ every now and then went chasing round one another
in eddies from the distant vaults of the roof.
The Communion Service was still going on but the main
congregation trooped out shortly after I came in; nearly all
the men in it were soldiers. There were Australiansscattered
all through it, and Canadians, and, I fancy, a fair proportion
of Scots, and provincial people. It was a large congregation,
and it came slowly out, looking at Wellington's tomb and Watts
and Holman Hunt's pictures, down the aisles and the nave. Every
now and then a couple of Australians or some Canadians, with
and older man showing them round would come up the aisle halting
before the various wonders, I think I like St. Paul's better

than Westminster, which is too much choked with pretentious old
tombs of the last two centuries. To-morrow I settle into my new office. Bazley has beenseeing to the provision of its furniture. The boy is working too hard, as is Treloar, General White's clerk, who has become Officer Commanding of this growing Australian War Section,and is now a captain. Treloar is a Public Service clerk in Australia, in the Defence Department, and like most of the Public
Service clerks in the Forces that I know, is a tremendous worker.
There is a company of 5 or 6 I think, with General Griffiths at their head - most conscientious, untiring, limitless workersthat I have ever met. Several of them are Irish and Roman catholics.

 They have worked through Saturdays and Sundays,
beginning early and ending late, or three years, and they
have quite overturned a good many old ideas about the Public
Service. Little Treloar is a Methodist, and though he will
not work on Sundays, which he spends at Church and in writing
home letters, he works in the office from 9 a.m. till 7 p.m.
on other days including Saturdays, and often later and takes
work home with him. He will not take afternoon tea and spends
only half an hour at lunch. Bazley works in the same manner
sometimes later than Treloar, Both are doing far too much for
their health. In the whole of these great public records
offices of Great Britain, the majority of the British staff
comes about 9.30 a.m. and finishes at 5 p.m., and the only
section that is always at work before them and always at work
for 2, 3, or 4 hours after them, is ourlittle Australian Section.
The office is on the top floor of a big red brick building in Great Peter Street, which used to be the home of the Societyfor promotion of the Education of the Poor, or some such name

January 28, Monday
My typist, Miss Pollitt, started work here this
morning I have not yet even begun to look at the work for
which I came over from France. The administrative tasks in
connection with the dragging together by of records, photographs,
pictures, cinema and so on, are so big; and,in the present cramped
state of accommodation down at the Public Records Office, we
cannot possibly increase the staff. What is now actually hang-

ing up the work is the difficulty which the Board of Works finds
in discovering suitable offices for the Society for the Promotion
of Education amongst the Poor, the Assistant Curates Fund and
the other charitable institutions down stairs. Until they move
out, our Pay Office cannot move in, and until our Pay Office

moves in we cannot get into their present rooms at A. I. F.
Headquarters. The Pay Office is also suffering heavily by 

the congestion. The two youngsters who have made that dusty
old English cobwebbed covered anachronism which we brought from
Australia into a going modern concern - Colonel H. A. S Evans

(a young Sydney accountant who started as a private) and Major
Grasswick, are both seriously ill. Evans had no sooner risen
from private at the very bottom of the Department to Lieut,Colonel
in supreme charge of the whole Australian Pay Administration,
than he fell seriously ill and has been at a sanatorium in the
north of Britain ever since.

Grasswick, perhaps an even more brilliant youngster, who
came to Australia originally from Scotland, took his place in
spite of many natural heart burnings on the part of older/men,  and 

he is down with double pneumonia. The ultimate cause of the trouble - the Society for the Promotion of the Education of the Poor, has been treated abominably
by the British Government, who simply told them that they have to go to another any office which can be found for them. (I believe they are getting one at Windsor) "Compensation" said the Board of Works, when the subject was mentioned, "you cannot have compensation, 

why you are a charitable organisation; you do not
make any private profit. If you were a private firm, we would  com-

pensate you, but being charitable, you will have to go without".
So we cannot rush the poorold Society too hurriedly into any old
corner the Office of Works supplies. General Griffiths has

agreed that they are not to be pushed out of their present office
untilreally equivalent ones can be provided for them.
I give that just as an illustration of the curious side of issues
in evvery branch affecting the course of this all-embracing War.
 January 29

Last night as we were sitting round the table in the smoking room of No, 1 Lexham Gardens, where Treloar and Butler also have come today to lodge, we heard the unmistakeable distant boom of a gun. It was rather like old times to hear them again.The opinion in the smoking room was divided as to whether a raid was approaching or no, but sometime later the barking of a number of scattered guns a good deal nearer showed that a raid by German aeroplanes was in progress. We went out, but the lower air was so foggy that one could not see a sign of shrapnel bursting. From.where we were, his outburst seemed such a mild one that it was scarcely possible to raise any interest. Much later, lying in bed, one heard through the open window,  the sound of guns firingagain for about half an hour, so I suppose that some other 'planemust have got through. It was the mildest thing in the way ofa raid that I have ever known, but I suppose there is always somequarter of this vast city where it is unpleasant. What strikes one, after lying out underneath the aeroplanes at Hoograf and the Scottish Lines, where the guns were barking all round and the huts used to shake to the explosion of bombs, is that civilians over here do not realise how infinitisi mally small t is the chance of a direct hit by a bomb in on their particular pin point in this enormous area. The falling fragments of shell and shrapnel pellets must be their chief danger, and yet so far, one has seenand heard nothing like the showers of them which rain down some etimes on the roads in France and on the various battle fields where nobody t

where nobody takes the slightest notice of them - although I
have heard them men confess that they would rather be  xxxxx wearing
tin hats than ordinary cloth caps.

January 30 Last night I went out to dinner with my old/friend F.Graham Lloyd, agent for the Sydney Morning Herald in London.Lloyd was broken by the smash of his Bombay agents at the be-ginning of the War, but he found jobs for all his staff and hangs on to the tithe of his former business in a single little room at the back of the "Herald" office in Fleet Street.The staff consists of his old brother and the charwoman who followed him faithfully from the big office which he used to occupy in Cheapside. I was not surprised to see her there, knowing the sort of man Lloyd is. She told me that a bomb had fallen on their poor little street - not far from Sidney Street where the Anarchists were barricaded and burned out some year ago after the Hounsditch murders. The place is called Jubilee Street. Six of these jimcrack houses had been flattened in a mass of debris, and they were still engaged in digging out some of the children, five or six of whom had been killed there.Somehow, the East End always seems to catch some bombs in every raid. Possibly their flimsy houses make the effect there seem worse than in the West where /unless you can-take a taxi and hunt  for it you never find a trace of any shell or bomb damage. Indeed, the only signs that I know of are a few pock marks  spattered on the pedestal of Cleopatra's Needle and a similar splash on the west side of Chancery Lane at Lincoln's Inn.A few more can be found, if you look for them, near the "Morning Post". One of last Monday's bombs happened to drop on the works where "John Bull" is printed. Here about 30 were killed and over 100 injured. The place happened to be used for a shelter and was crowded at the time. Also it caught fire and the heavy machinery falling down, prevented the people from escaping from the flames or the water which the Fire Brigade poured on  the burning building.