Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/261/1 - 1929 - 1930 - Part 16

Dictated
AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND FORCES
Ismailia,
11-3-1916.
My dear Elliott,
I would not for anything damp your enthusiasm, and
do not think me cynical when I remind you that you are one battalion
out of sixty! I have the greatest sympathy with your territorial
scheme, but instead of going at it "neck and crop" would it not
have been wiser to work towards the territorial idea than to have
attempted to get it at one jump? It seems to me that the result
of your effort has been to disunite you from three of your battalion
commanders, and this is not a happy start. One has always to bear
in mind too that these fellows' reputations are in your hands and
are of course just as precious to them as your own is to you. I
am going into the whole thing to see what can be done and the
General wishes to help you, but your precipitancy has not made it
easy for us.
I am sorry that it is not possible to give you carte
blanche in the way you suggest in your note of today to get men from
other infantry battalions; as you know the lst and 2nd Divisions
are about to move, and their efficiency for the time being takes
priority over yours. We issued the circular about transfers from
Light Horse Brigades because up till then they had no opportunity
of participating in the expansion.
I notice that you say that you will not countenance
any blocking of transfers where it is clearly to the advancement
of the applicant to obtain the appointment in question. May'
suggest to you that the advancement of the applicant is a minor
thing to the efficiency of the whole?
All this sounds a little more of a rebuke than
I actually intend, but I hope shortly to get a chance of talking
it over with you as a friend.
 

-2-
Do not rush into it too hard: such a reorganisation
as we are attempting is unnatural enough, and nature dislikes
sudden eruptions.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) C. B. White
Colonel H. E. Elliott,
Commanding 14 Inf. Bde.
Tel el Kebir.
We sent on your "affiliation" letter to Melbourne.
I do not quite agree about the battle honour business. The
claims of your parent battalion are rather neglected in it.
C. W.
 

AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE
Headquarters, 15th Infantry Brigade,
12th March, 1916.
Dear General White,
I have seen Major Smith of the 22nd Battalion
and have induced him to see that he should put all personal feeling
aside in the matter and do what would be best in the interests
of the C. M. Forces.
He is now quite as enthusiastic as myself
with regard to the Development of the territorial idea and states
that he cannot see his way to apply for a transfer to the command
of the 60th Battalion as it would look like running away from
difficulties which he himself has been responsible for (he alludes
to the fact that he has recommended several of his officers for
return to Australia and the superceding of others for incompetency)
but will very gladly accept the command of the 60th if he is detailed 
to do so. As Colonel Field has applied to go to Australia
there is now no difficulty in the way of this being effected and
I shall be very grateful if you can see your way to issue orders
accordingly.
Major Harris could then be transferred to the
22nd Battalion and that would be very satisfactory to him as he
desires to return to the 6th Infantry Brigade.
Please do what you can to helf these arrangements
to take immediate effect. The 59th Battalion under Layh and 57th
under Stewart are progressing favourably while the 60th and 58th
are at a standstill owing to no officers coming forward to serve
under them
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) H. E.E.
 

Headquarters, 15th Inf. Bde.
14th January, 1916.
Dear General White,
Your note of the 11th March received and very
carefully noted, but if you will forgive me saying it, you really
have "the wrong sow by the ear" if you have thought for one moment
that I have allowed my preference for the territorial idea to cloud
my judgment of men. Stewart of the 57th does not in the least belong
to the territorial idea, but he is far and away the best man for the
job he has, is doing it very excellently and I shall strongly recommend 
his confirmation in the position, officers from the 57th
Area are available but I have never suggested that one of them
should be appointed in his stead. Rather than have an inefficient
battalion commander although belonging to the territorial area I
would abandon the whole thing.
Now regarding the others whom I do not recommend.
First, Davis of the 58th Battalion; I inquired of Peck and others of
the W. A. Forces who know him, the verdict was all the time unfavourable
I doubt if you would get a single battalion commander under Glasfurd's
command to take him even as a second in command.
Does this go for nothing? You could satisfy
yourself by reference to Peck, who being on the A. & I Staff should
be a fair and unprejudiced judge. I admit that in this case Davis
may have some ground for complaint at being turned down without a
trial, but I have his own confession of helplessness in the matter of
obtaining Victorian officers to serve under him. I am now filling his
battalion for him to his own great relief.
Next as to Harris. I have been unable to find
anyone whose opinion I value at all who thinks the least of Harris
as a commander of men. Am I wrong in believing that you thoroughly
agree? Major Coulter, 8th Battalion, who was left behind to instruct
the 21st Battalion when they relieved the 8th Battalion at Steeles
Post (and he is no very rigid disciplinarian himself) was so disgusted 
by the slackness and lack of discipline shown by the 21st
Battalion when under Harris that he actually paraded him (Harris)
 

before Brig. Gen. Smyth, and Harris was soundly reprimanded. Gen.
Smyth would probably remember the incident. You could satisfy yourself 
as to this if you have a quiet unofficial talk with Major
Coulter thereon.
Similarly with regard to Field. I have seen him at Mena carrying 
on outposts. It was a sight for the Gods. Even his old friend
Colonel Bolton reported against him as a possible second in command.
Field admitted as much to me the other day. You could possibly
turn up the official record of this. Field was also not recommended
to command a double company at Mena but to this Col. McCay, another
old friend of his, would not agree and so Field got his company.
Refer this also to Major Coulter. His comment to me was that up to
the present time he has had more trouble in maintaining discipline
in Field's old company than in all the rest of the battalion.
Then what do you think of this for his judgment. He recommended
to me in writing which I can produce a man he knew intimately named
Robertson as a company commander as being the best available. Two
days later I was astounded to find that you had recommended Robertson's
return to Australia as an obsolutely useless officer. Now he has
strongly recommended this man as being a good man to be employed
in the Field Cashier's office and General Cox is supporting it against
me. If you require any further evidence about Robertson refer to Major
Hart, 7th Battalion who was associated withhim for some months. His
frank opinion is that Robertson is a trifle "dotty". I investigated
the past history of another friend of Field's, an 8th Bn. Sergeant
named McKinnon, whom Field presented as a candidate for commission.
I found that only a fortnight or so back he was presented for
Court Martial by Major Coulter on a grave charge of using threatening
language to his superior officer. The man escaped on a technicality
but had he been presented on a charge of drunkenness in the opinion
of Major Layh, the President of the Court, he must have been convicted.
How can I on the face of this, place the slightest reliance on any
of Field's recommendations.
These are not the only causes of complaint against Field. I have
not officially mentioned even these before because I did not want to
 

-3-
injure his reputation, and I only do so now to protect myself from
the imputation that I have acted hastily.
As a further proof that I am not obessed by the territorial
idea I will strongly recommend for the 2nd in command of the 58th
Battalion a Captain Kimber of the 31st Battalion, and not even a
Victorian, in preference to Major Jackson, a company commander of
the 58th in Australia and old friend of my own and latterly my
second in command, but whose later developments as a soldier was
not what it should have been. Lest the 7th should suffer in reputation 
on my leaving it I recommended to Brig. Cen. Forsyth
that Major Jess, his Brigade Major, should get the command rather
than Jackson. As a company commander he was pretty good, as a
battalion commander he could not grip either officers or men. With
regard to the question of transfers of officers injuring the efficiency
of the whole, I contend it will have the very opposite effect. Of
what interest is it to a man to be earnest, zealous, and untiring
in his work if it will merely result in his battalion commander refusing 
to part with him.
No doubt that you yourself would be a brilliant adjutant and
the salvation of a man like Field. The Division is the worse off
because of your promotion but if the efficiency of the whole not
served by advancing you to your present position. Is this same
argument not to be applicable to everyone then or is it only to
apply to the Staff? I tell you your argument is totally wrong if
it involves this. Everyone who is worthy of it should be pushed on
irrespective of the inconvenience it may cause the man who loses
by the advancement. If he is worthy of the name of a soldier he will
rejoice that the men under him are being sought out for command.
When Major Smith, 22nd Battalion, asked me for the best man in
my battalion (Major Layh) as his 2nd in command while we were at Tel
el Kebir did I refuse to transfer him? No, I went out of my way to
help him to it against even his own wishes, for he did not want to
leave the 7th. But the Staff turned him down and appointed one Norris
to be commander over Smith instead, and have now once more transferred
Norris and kept Smith as the better man and Smith is applying for
 

-4-
and will get a man not nearly so good as Layh for the job of 2nd in
command.
If anything I have done does not meet with your or Gen. Birdwood's
fullest approval upon mature consideration I am ready at once and without 
complaint to return to my boys of the 7th.
In fact if you had any or the slightest idea that I would coutenance 
or tolerate inefficiency of any kind for the purpose of merely
maintaining a compatible position I am ready to return to Australia
forthwith.
The men whom I have recommended know and fear that at the
slightest sign of inefficiency or neglect on their part they also
would be turned down even though they were my best friends and yet
they-willnot respeet.
As for my reputation that must take care of itself.
The territorial idea was adopted ^ not as an end in itself, but as a
means of inspiring enthusiasm in men who feel just a little sore in
being cast out of the fold of the old battalions.
If I seemed to you to have pushed the idea hastily you were wrong,
nothing, as you will now perhaps admit, has been recommended without
the gravest consideration.
The reputation of the men upon whom I have reported adversely
may be sacred - to me the lives of the men who may depend on them
is more sacred still and in two cases. viz:- Field and Harris, I
fear greatly for those entrusted to them.
But having told you this matter lies with you for decision and
on your head be the blame if you find for any reason that you cannot
follow my recommendations. For those whom I do recommend I am ready
to answer at any time and place provided that if they fail to satisfy
me in the future I shall be at liberty to recommend that they also
be laid aside. As I asked before, do you desire an efficient brigade
or will any old thing do? I am open to receive instructions either
way, they will be obeyed, but they should be clear. Was I wrong to
assume that you desire efficiency – efficiency before all things,
and I am intensely in earnest over this.
I conscientiously believe my judgment of these men is just and
 

-5-
and my recommendations are made in the sole interest of the efficiency
of the Force.
Upon investigation you may conclude my judgment is wrong, is not,
in fact, wor6h a twopenny d--, then do your plain duty and relegate me
to the 7th Battalion, to the Base, or to Australia as your conscientious 
judgment may determine is the right place for me. Reputation
or no reputation I ask no one to bear what I will not readily stand
myself. In regard to the remark contained in your postscript about
battle honours and the claims of parent battalions being neglected,
I am sorry but it is quite beyond my comprehension. The new one will
not I hope but merge in the corresponding units at home on their return
hence there cannot be any interference and claims of any kind to parent
battalions or anyone else. The battle honours referred to are to be won
in the future.
Of course if a general grant is made to battalions in Australia
regarding honours won already, then no doubt these new units, or rather
the corresponding ones in Victoria might well claim to participate
in that distribution by reason of the number of officers and men which
they contributed to the A.I.F. Regiments.
I shall be delighted to personally explain anything to you if you
ever have time to spare to see me.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) H. E. Elliott
 

Copy
 

ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY,
WOOLWICH, S.E.18.
9th June, 1929.
Dear General,
I feel I must write to tell you what a cheery dinner
we had the other evening tho' Tamson Archdale, who is now commanding
the Chestnuts will also write to thank you and Brigadier Watson for
being so thoughtful as to cable us. I do hope we will meet again in
years to come, and anyway you will remember that you will be always
welcomed here. I passed through Villiers Brett. in the train last
January and badly wanted to get out and have a look round. It is still
vividly in my recollection, and being more open country it has not
altered so much as some parts of the line.
Our elections are just over and everything goes on
much the same again. I feel the Navy will come in for some cuts; but
too, hope they will not set about us without mature thought. They will
give an impetus to many things and although Mr. Balwins' moves were
steady and sure I really believe that was wanted five years ago, but,
now we must get on a bit quicker with our reconstruction work at home
and get the rising generation to move and fill up some of your open
spaces. I wish I were under 40 and I would try my luck. Thank you
very much for your long letter at Christmas. It was most interesting
and I passed on quite a lot of it to our Cadets. We teach them more
about the Empire now and less gunnery!
With my best wishes to my friends of the A.I.F.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) A.W. Van Straubenzee.
 

MELBOURNE CLUB
13/9/29
Major General H. E. Elliott has asked me to furnish him with a memo.,
for purposes which he names, expressing my opinion of his services
while under my command in the A.I.F.
As a Lieutenant Colonel, he was one of those chosen by me to
command a battalion in the 2nd (Vic.) Infantry Brigade at the outset
of war. Except when he was evacuated wounded, he remained under my
command till I, in turn, suffered the same experience in July 1915.
When I took command of the 5th Division in March 1916, I found he had
been appointed commander of the 15th Brigade, a part of the Division.
He served under me in that position till I was evacuated sick in December 
1916.
Throughout all his service under me, even in such trying circumstances 
as the Battle of Fromelles, I found him loyal, capable and
efficient and the exhibitor of great personal courage. Both in training 
and in action he fulfilled all my expectations of him.
(Signed) J.W.McCay K.C.M.G., K.B.E.
Lieutenant General (Ret) A.M.F.
Formerly Major General A.I.F.