Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/254/1 - 1917 - 1933 - Part 22

AIF Book

TELEPHONE:
CENTRAL 4780.
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE,
MELBOURNE, 1st December 1932
Dear John,
The figures asked for in yours of the
29th ult. are appended. I have not prepared any
additional figures for Corps troops, as they were
included in those supplied on the 21st ult.
I made one important typographical error
in the figures, for officers wounded in the 1st
Division,sent, on the 21st ;please amend to read
233 in place of 133.
Yours sincerely,
AJWithers
J. Balfour Esq.,
Victoria Barracks,
Paddington. N.S.W.
 

TOTAL A.I.F. BATTIE CASUALTIES IN THE FIVE AUSTRALIAN DIVISIONS DURING THE PERIODS SPECIFIED

14x13 Table - see original document

Extracted from statistics compiled by Australian Section, 3rd Echelon, B.E.F. from
Field Returns and Hospital Reports.
Ist December 1932
A.J.W.
 

29 November 1932.
A.J. WITHERS, Esq.,
Defence Department,
Melbourne.
Dear Withers,
Many thanks for the details of casualties enclosed with
your letter of 21st November. Dr Bean would now like to obtain
if available, particulars, as under, for periods specified:
A.I.F. Total Battle Casualties -                          Off.      O.R.
1st Aust. Div. (20 July to 12 Nov. 1917)             . . . .      . . . . . .
2nd Aust. Div. (20 July to 21 Nov. 1917)           . . . .      . . . . . .
3rd Aust. Div. (15 Sept to 20 Oct. 1917)           . . . .      . . . . . .
4th Aust. Div. (15 Sept to 25 Oct. 1917)           . . . .      . . . . . .
5th Aust. Div. (19 July to 12 Nov. 1917)             . . . .      . . . . . .
Yours sincerely,
 

TELEPHONE:
CENTRAL 4780.
 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE,
MELBOURNE,
21st November 1932
Dear John,
I am enclosing a statement of A.I.F.
casualties during the period 31st July - 15th November
1917 (inclusive). As you omitted to state whether
you required Non-battle casualties as well as Battle
casualties I have prepared figures of the totals
by cause and have left you to make the additions
suitable to your requirements.
Yours sincerely,
A . J. Withers
J. Balfour Esq.,
Victoria Barracks,
Padding ton. N.S.W.
 

A.I.F. CASUALTIES IN FRANCE 31ST JULY TO 15TH NOVEMEER 1917 (INCLUSIVE)
 

18x15 Table - see original document

Extracted from statistics compiled by 3rd Echelon from Field Returns and Hospital Reports.
21st November 1932
A.J.W.
 

18 November 1932.
A.J. Withers, Esq.,
Defence Department,
Melbourne.
Dear Withers,
When I was in Melbourne, I think you told me
that you can readily put your hand on detailed figures of
A.I.F. casualties. If so, Dr Bean would like to obtain
the following -
[* 20 July 22 June - 1112Nov

20 July 31 Jy - 11 Nov

Sept 15 30 Jy - 2021Oct

Sept 15 - 2723 25       " 

19 July - 12 Nov*]

A.I.F. CASUALTIES IN FRANCE. 31 JULY - 15 NOV., 1917 (INCLUSIVE):

                                                        Officers          O.R.

1st Australian Division                . . . .               . . . . . .

2nd A     "               "                       . . . .               . . . . . .

3rd          "               "                       . . . .               . . . . . .

4th          "               "                       . . . .               . . . . . .
5th          "               "                        . . . .               . . . . . .

Other A.I.F. units in France        . . . .               . . . . . .
                                                        ——————–————

                                                        ——————–————
If the figures are not available for this precise period,
perhaps you could obtain the totals for the months August-
November inclusive. But, if this request involves a
great deal of research, do not go ahead with it; we may
be able to find another way of indicating in the volume
the point which Dr Bean wishes to bring out.
Yours sincerely,
 

Dear A.J.W.
With regand to the gas casualties
in the attached letters, would you
be so good as to let me know
whether among those cited in the 

second letter (as you did in the first one), there were any fatal

cases? If so could you let me

 know the total deaths (in the second list)?

Yours sincerely

CEWB

16/1/33

Dear Baz.

There were no deaths from Gas Poisoning

in the Army Brigades or

D.a.C.'s during the period

shown. Of course it is possible

that some ultimately died
of the effects of gas
but none are recorded

in the statistical

records held.

Yours.A.J.W.

18.1.33

170 THE AUSTRALIANS AT RABAUL [Dec., 1914
It appears strange that at this stage, and without reference
to or consultation with Holmes, Pethebridge should have made
recommendations relative to matters which, it might have been
assumed, fell solely within the jurisdiction of the Administrator

 of New Guinea. Especially is this remarkable in viey
of the original instructions given to him that "in carrying out
your mission the Government do not desire you to take any
action with regard to any matters affecting the possessions
south of the equator, with which the Administrator at Rabaul
has already dealt." Pethebridge apparently took the view that
these instructions had been cancelled by the abandonment of
the North-West Pacific Expedition, and that, in his capacity
as Secretary for Defence, he now had a general authority to
make recommendations to the Minister, with whom his
relations had naturally been most intimate and confidential.
In this he may have been right. It must, however, be frankly
admitted that in his reports to Melbourne (both on this
occasion and, later, on that of his first arrival at Rabaul) he
evinced a tendency to embark upon hasty and rather sweeping
criticism of the structure of the military administration
adopted by Holmes. Yet it was the same structure which
he himself subsequently retained, with little modification.
With the knowledge he afterwards acquired of conditions in
New Guinea, he would have strenuously opposed the partition
of the Territory into two independent administrative spheres,
which would, in fact, have been a serious mistake, retarding
the growth and destroying the cohesion of the administration.
In his report to Melbourne from Madang Pethebridge
also stated that most of the troops forming the garrison there,
as well as Bracegirdle's men who had been sent from Rabaul
for the Sepik River expedition, were discontented and anxious
to return to Australia as were also, he was informed, the
remainder of Holmes's force. As the islands north of the
equator were now beyond Australian jurisdiction, he said he
would proceed to Rabaul, taking back with him the greater
part of Bracegirdle's contingent, and would then report more
definitely how to utilise the Eastern troops. It would, he
continued, be necessary to relieve the garrison at Nauru. On
his return from Nauru the members of the Tropical Force