Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/3/1 - March - April 1915 - Part 9

86 
officers got their kits packed ; the Headquarters mess 
baskets were brought up ; the iron ration (or rather 
The grocery ration & three days rations done up in ^separate bags)
were distributed.  During the past six or seven days our 
operation order must have been gradually got out.  
These different departments have all been busy 
drawing up their schemes - the signallers, the naval artillery, 
the A.A. & Q.M.G. responsible for food & water & discipline 
& promotion.  The naval officers have been down in the Saloon 
with Col. Skeen & Col White playing about with a blackboard & 
a number of white paper circles on it - each representing a 
transport or a string of transports.  They have be Each day the white paper 
circles are in different groups, now 4 in xx each line , now six in 
some & 4 in others.  And today another table was occupied 
by our chief interpreter (a very interesting chap who was in 
the embass ^our customs mission in Constantinople) who was interrupting some 
of the Greek guides.
When one saw these guides with their black fur 
caps & baggy breeches, & white stockings, turned up shoes, 
scrambling upon the hatch for lunch one was convinced we 
were for it tonight.  But we weren't. xxxx The Conference of 
colonels is to assemble again on Wednesday. Some 
say we are waiting for 2 more divisions from Marseilles.
This morning Aubrey Herbert (who is an interpreter in the Intelligence 
Dept. in the Arcadian) told me that Maxwell of the Daily Mail 
is there as Censor ; Ashmead Bartlett is in some ship for a 
number of London papers ; & some chap , he thought, for Reuters. 

 

73 
77 87
I suppose, therefore, the Admiralty has at last made its 
press arrangements; & I got leave of Maj. Blamey, our 
Intelligence officer, to go across & try find out when the 
"sanction" (which I have to obtain by the arrangement with 
Headquarters by which I am here) was likely to be obtained; 
what applies to these English paper newspaper men would 
presumably apply to me.  Blamey gave me a letter to 
Gen.Braithwaite (the Chief of Staff) & I went across to the 
Arcadian.
The Arcadian is Headquarters ship & was of course 
swarming with staff officers of the usual British type ^  with some 
not at all of that type - I should say at sight men who have 
been taken on for this particular job; rather breezy looking 
sailor men; a few whom one wd say were civilians in military 
clothes & somewhat pedantic & donnish in appearance.  
I took Blamey's letter along, & one pleasant sort of officer 
pointed me out Gen.Braithwaite.  Blamey's letter told him 
that I was appointed by the Australian Govt; a sort 
of Australian "Eyewitness"; & that the staff had always 
found me very loyal & discreet - & asked if 
possible that I shd. have the same facilities as the 
English pressmen. When they were getting their letters 
away. (He took it for granted as I did that if 
these English journalists were sanctioned then 
my sanctioning wd follow as a matter of course - 
indeed it never entered my head that it cd be otherwise).

73  92
English provincial papers to send a man & the 
London papers to send another ; but the application correspondent
of our Australian Govt through Sir George Reid is
not whom our High Commissioner asks them to 
allow to come with the force is not permitted.
I have, since I came on this job, tried
to do everything in the proper decent military way ,
through our staff - so that the staff knew of every
application I make & the applications were
made through them. I did this because I  
said to myself : If I stick strictly to the right
methods , & show that I can be trusted as 
careful much as any officer on an any army staff ,
the copy one sends may not be so good -
methods of getting news have to be forgone which
war correspondents normally use - making 
friends of certain officers & getting supplied by
them with information & so on - but I 
will try & play this game with allowing cards on
the table, face upwards. 
Well, our own staff & probably the Army Corps
staff, know that one can be trusted - the divisional staff 
has stood by me splendidly in any difficulty . But
there the effect of it ends. The only result of doing 
things in the right way as far as the War Office 
goes is that they can ^ignore you altogether boot you about exactly as
pleases them. If I had sent one 
 

73     
78 .88
I said I knew he must be busy but wd he refer 
me to Mr. Maxwell, & I cd have a talk with him .  
His said answer nearly flattened me : He said he was 
rather surprised Blamey had written asked that I 
should have the same facilities as the English pressmen, 
because it was perfectly understood that I had only 
come on condition I was to write nothing at all.  
I corrected him : the order I had received was 
nothing at all "until sanctioned" and I naturally 
had supposed that when they were arrangements were made 
sanctioning English pressmen they would also sanction 
me & I had come to find out.
He said he knew nothing about any sanction 
being given - they knew had heard nothing about me whereas 
the English pressmen had come to them "properly 
accredited ."
I said : "Well then the mention of condition 'until 
sanction is given' in my arrangement their order to me meant 
nothing ."
He said it meant "until sanction was given! , 
but they had no reason to suppose that sanction 
would ever be given ".
I saw as  He referred me afterwards to Col.
Ward of the General staff, who put the thing a 
little less caustically but to the same effect. George 
Lloyd, who is here as an intelligence officer (he is a member

73      91

will be who standing by who comes forward & speaks to you
like a reasonable being - & through one of these
I eventually reached the officer who knew what
boats were going & who fixed one up very
kindly as soon as he had a message going to
my ship. But he was a naval man. I must 
say that I breathe again to be back amongst
Australian manners after these experiences of
the English official. One Army Corps Staff has been
in India, & has travelled - & somehow that seems
to make a gentleman of the Englishman. You could
not get a more charming thoughtful gentleman than
Gen. Birdwood. But with the run of English who have
never left England - their idea of the way to treat a stranger
is so hopelessly different from ours & from that of the French
& other nations in the world that I think the best way is
often to keep clear of them altogether. 
It is the same sort of self - satisfaction or 
want of imagination or something which guides the
Admirality, I suppose, in its idea of what is 
proper in such a case as mine. Here is an
Australian force come all across the world to help
them in the stiffest business they have yet undertaken
We form at least as big important a part of their army
here as the British part of it - probably a 
good deal more numerous; at least as important
at any rate. And they go and appoint allow the 

73
79  89 
of Parlt in the old country & a pleasant chap) 
had  saw me standing there & kindly volunteered to  
tell Ward who I was & to do what he could for me and tell 
Ward who I was.  But xxxx  Ward had not got the extraordinary 
English manner of Braithwaite - he was very polite & 
reasonable & simply told me that the thing was in the 
had of the Admiralty;  & the Admiralty had told them nothing
about me; & until they did I could not be given 
the same privileges as the English pressmen.  One
of these English pressmen wo  They had heard that two 
English pressmen were to be allowed to accompany the 
Dardanelles force - one representing a number of London
papers & the other representing some Provincial papers.  
The former had arrived; the latter had not yet arrived.
[[Txxxx that just about ruthless as for the xxxxxxxx
xxforward from the xxxxxxxhad the slightest consideration
xxxxxxx from xx   It is utterly dispiriting having 
to work under in thexx?]]
It was about ten minutes past the luncheon 
hour when this interview finished, but nobody in the  and the whole staff was 
in at luncheon; but nobody in this very English ship 
dreamed of asking if one had lunched.  I loafed about the 
deck until about 2.30 waiting for a boat chance of a boat 
back to the Minnewaska or the shore & being soundly snubbed 
by the only  by some of the people on board for being so bold as 
to ask if there were any boats likely to be leaving for either 
place.  As often as Generally when one Englishman snubs you another

90   73
Observing [[?]]
Duntroon  Cadets .