Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/262/1 - 1916 - 1934 - Part 4

8767.
23 July 1934.
Dear Major Treloar,
In the London "Daily News" of November 6th, 1925, 
there was published an article by Major-General Sir Frederick 
Maurice "blowing out" the long-standing rumour of the Kaiser
having referred to the original B.E.F.as a "contemptible"
little army. Maurice, who apparently went into the matter
carefully, was helped in his researches by a German general
- see Ponsonby's book, "Falsehood in War Time" (p. 87), if
you have a copy in the War Memorial library.
'  Dr. Bean would very much like to see Maurice's
article and any correspondence in the "Daily News" which
followed, or even preceded, its publication.   If you do not
happen to have this in the A.W.M. library, would it be too
much for you to ask Australia House to have copies made for
the War Memorial, and to let us see them when they come to hand.
It is possible, of course, that the Melbourne Public Library
keeps bound volumes of "The Daily News", but I doubt it;
the Sydney Public library does not file it.
Yours sincerely,
Major J.L. Treloar, O.B.E.,
Australian War Memorial,
Box 2114D, G.P.O.,
Melbourne. 

[*545*]
VOL V  CHAP Xlll-FIFTY-SEVEN
The Second Bullecourt was the most brilliant of these
achievements, impressing enemy and friends alike; it was,
in some ways, the stoutest achievement of the Australian
soldier in France, carried through against the stubbornest
enemy that ever faced him there. Fortunately, it was the
last such achievement. In the fighting still to come the
conditions were sometimes terribly adverse; but never again
did some of the chief difficulties appear to be due to serious
faults of the British command. When next the Australian
infantry divisions entered battle they found their actions
directed by higher leadership of a strikingly different order.  

8786.
7 August 1934.
My.dear Wood,
I should have before this acknowledged your
letter, but have been very much preoccupied. You are entirely
justified in your campaign against war propaganda. It is a
vile business, and the thing that I hated the most in all the war.
As far as England was concerned, it was mainly carried on by
the newspapers and not by the Government, and it consisted in
publishing everything that was bad about your enemy and almost
nothing that was decent about him. But the material wasn't
invented - those who made capital out of this sort of stuff
simply used the stories that came to hand, all of which, so
far as I ever traced them, were genuinely believed by those
with whom they originated.
As for the "contemptible little army" story, I find
that this did not originate in the British Army at all, but was
taken in some form from the British press. How it got to the
British press I don't know, but it was probably believed by
the man who first reported it.
I wish you luck in your efforts, and I am sorry
that we ever had to cross swords.
Yours sincerely,

A.W. Wood, Esq.,
Hon. Secretary, University Branch,
League of Nations Union,
St. Andrew's College,
The University of Sydney,
Newtown, N.S.Wales.

 [*81*]
VOL.  IV.  CHAP.  IV.   TWENTY-TWO.   
The order for this withdrawal had been issued before the last two

advances by the 45th Battalion in Stormy Trench-indeed,  the 45th's

second assault had been launched only an hour and a half before the

German garrison was due to retire.   The silence of the prisoners

then captured is evidence of a steadfastness more than once exhibited

by men of the 4th Ersatz Division in spite of the reputed lowness

of its morale ;  and the failure to counter-attack was also deliberate-

the trench was due to be abandoned, and its loss an hour earlier did

not then endanger any adjoining position.   One precaution was taken-

the battalion holding the trenches next to the lost section stayed on

a little longer to deceive their opponents, and then retired unnoticed.

In this the fog was of great assistance.   "Through the rain and

mist," says the regimental historian of the 5th Guard Grenadier

Regiment, which withdrew from The Maze, "the evacuation of the

front line went off smoothly and without loss."   The destruction

of dugouts had not been quite so thorough as the German staff

probably believed or intended,59  but the removal or destruction of
papers was remarkably thorough : it was not until March 13 that

any document of value was found on this part of the front.60
At 2.30 a.m. on the 23rd large craters were blown in the road

leading through Le Barque and Thilloy, and on the main Bapaume

road, rendering them impassable by wheeled vehicles.   The forward

area was now occupied only by the few men with orders to "throw

flares" and "make sounds of activity on the wire-entanglements"-

and even these troops were in some cases from a quarter to half-a-mile
behind the old front line.   The German artillery was ordered 

to keep its barrage line in front of that position as long as it was

possible to do so.   At day-break the flare-throwers were withdrawn,

but an observing party remained throughout the 23rd in "Bank

Trench" (on the knuckle east of The Maze) and between 8 and 10.20

there were sent back several mistaken reports that Australian patrols

had penetrated The Maze and the adjoining part of Bayonet Trench.

It was for this reason that the German artillery laid its fire on parts

of its old front line.
Scouting parties sent out by the Germans on July
[*?February or the*]
24th found to 

their surprise that these trenches were empty, the supposed intruders

having apparently evacuated them.   On the suggestion of the commander
of its rear-guard, the 4th Guard Division sent out again

patrols of 15-20 men under an officer, one in each regimental sector,

to re-occupy the front line, and, if possible, ascertain the position.

It was these which, going out at 5 p.m. on the 24th, found the

Australians beginning to flow into the old German lines, and were

responsible for the occasional resistance offered on the 1st Australian

Division's front that night.61

The thrust of the 3rd and 5th Australian Brigades on February

25 had pressed chiefly upon the 5th Guard Grenadiers (4th Guard

Division), whose rear parties held the Bapaume road to (and

including) Le Barque.   They amounted to seven sections of infantry

59 In many dugouts only the entrances were blown in; in a few the charges failed to explode.

60 See p.   (ante).

61 Their orders were to throw flares from the old front line, but to retire if

attacked.  The patrol of the 5th Foot Guard Regiment in Bayonet Trench gradually retired before the 2nd Australian Brigade, until 4 a.m., when it was entirely
withdrawn.

[*London Times 

April 1916*]                                                                                          

MR. HUGHES IN

THE CITY.
FREE MEN'S DUTY IN DEFENCE.
THE EMPIRE ON GUARD.

Newspaper article - see original document

[*London Times*]
REPLY OF MR.  HUGHES.

EMPIRE DEFENCE AND THE PEACE 

OF THE WORLD.

Newspaper article - see original document

SAVED FROM DECAY BY WAR.

A REAL SENSE OF EMPIRE.
Newspaper article - see original document

CASUALTIES IN GREAT WAR.

The loss of life in the Great War is given in "The Reduction of

Armaments", by J.W.Wheeler-Bennett, as follows:-

                                MEN KNOWN DEAD

British Empire          1,098,919

France                        1,427,000

U.S.A                              107,284

Italy                                 507,160

Russia                         2,762,064

Belgium                        267,000

Serbia                             707,343

Roumania                       339,117

Greece                              15,000

Germany                    2,050,466

Austria-Hungary      1,200,000

Turkey                            300,000

Bulgaria                           101,224

Total                            10,873,577

To this must be added 20,000,000 wounded, 9,000,000 war orphans,

5,000,000 war widows, 10,000,000 refugees.

These figures do not include the indirect losses from revolution,

famine, and pestilence, the increased death rate, and the total

losses due to the war. According to the Swedish Society for the

Study for Social Consequences of the War, the total loss must be

put down at 40,000,000 lives.

COST OF THE WAR.

The cost of the war to the four chief Allied Powers was:-

British Empire    £10,054,000,000

France                         8,126,639,000

U.S.A.                           5,519,594,000

Italy                              3,502,200,000

←(Taken from Disarmament pamphlet, issued by the L. of N. Union)

1931.

War left Britain with a debt of over £7,000,000,000. She has to

raise each year £350,000,000 for the service of this debt. At

present rate of repayment of the debt it will take 140 years to

liquidate it. British taxpayers have to pay on xxx debt services

£1,000,000 per day, £40,000 an hour, over £600 a minute. Add to

this the £115,000,00 Britain annually spends on the fighting services,

and £56,000,000 for war pensions, the total is £520,000,000 a year,

£1,000 a minute. x (Mr Snowden's speech, "Times", 10/2/30) 
→

[*Sydney Morning Herald 9/5/31*]

ASHMEAD BARTLETT.

Most Brilliant of War

Correspondents.

(BY C. E. W. BEAN) 

Newspaper article - see original document

FL.4151

5869.

21 May  1930.

Dear Sir John,

If I might presume to do so, I would advise you to

let it be known that the articles in "Smith's Weekly" were not

from your pen. I think they went down with a certain number of

the more or less unthinking and less well-educated members of the

A.I.F., but I could hardly tell you how many ex-soldiers and

officers of the other sort have spoken to me about them and

expressed themselves as puzzled or astonished that this style of

thing should have come from a great commander of the A.I.F. The

basis of knowledge and erudition in them was evidently so slight

and the generalisations so empty, that I felt sure they were not

your considered work, but what hurt more than anything was the

sort of implicit assumption (though it does appeal to one class

of Australian) that there was nothing worthy outside the A.I.F.

There is such an idea in Australia, although anyone who knows the

facts realizes that it is based on a deplorable ignorance; and

one who is out all the time to safeguard the reputation of

Australians among the thinking and enlightened people of the

world has more to fear from that attitude, adopted by a section of

his countrymen, than from anything else. I know very well that you

do not believe this stupid, vain myth, but, when articles purporting

to be yours appear to be steeped in the spirit of that fallacy,

it makes one feel as though the name of the A.I.F. - which I

cherish more than anything on earth - was being dragged through

the mud by its unwise defenders. I realize that you are not a

prey to that ignorant self-conceit, but the man who wrote those

articles was, and if they are read abroad they will do to our

reputation the very damage which they are intended to avert. I

would urge you, for the sake of your own reputation, to be

cautious in your interviews with the press, and, when you do

speak, to give them something that we can all feel is really

worthy of your great calibre of mind and of the very great

position which you occupied.

I have to thank you for writing to me frankly, and I

hope you will realize that this ^frank reply is frank reply it is written in the
spirit of entire goodwill towards yourself, and solely from care

of that precious thing which you and I and some others have to

some extent in our keeping- the great name of the A.I.F.

Yours sincerely,

C. E. W. BEAN

General Sir John Monash, G.C.M.G, K.C.B.