Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/36/1 - December 1915 - January 1916 - Part 6

53
them tt he ws specially enlisted 
for me from / "Argus" office,

& is my clerk who does all

my typing (wh he does) &

tt I cannot very well get thro'

/ work without him (wh also

is true for he develops every

photograph, types every letter,

& has typed / whole o /

Anzac book); And so, by a 

mixture of asking ^^special favours &

of asking nothing at all but

just assuming it, he got

safely w me to England (I

had to pay 1/3 fare for him across

France & even then he oughtn't

really to have travelled by / 

train wh is reserved for officers).
It was a hazy Sunday morning

when we steamed from Havre

54

up Southampton Water. A tall

officer on board ws talking to

Irvine. "I hardly like to tell you

^^{just now} who I am," he sd - "my name

is Stopford; I'm / brother of the

General Stopford." Ian Hamilton's 

dispatch had been published

2 days before with the account of

the Suvla landing in which he

gives Stopford such an awful

dressing down. Poor old

Stopford - as far as I know

(which isn't much) the dispatch

is scrupulously fair except that

it exaggerates the performances

of the part of K's army which

was with us in order to

make work up / contrast 

between what they could do

when well led & what they

55

did ^^{not do} when not lead at all.

It carries Hamilton's own

condemnation with it. One

battalion actually got to

Tekke Tepe, near Turshenkeni,

when Hamiton ordered it

to do so, tho' this was on the

4^th day! And yet he had

not the ^^{driving power} push to force his

subordinate leaders to push

a brigade or a division there!
Stopford, of course, is broken

by this dispatch; but I 

am told there is this to be

added - that before he went

out he protested that he was 

unfitted for the job - tt he 

had not / capacity for it.
The first day I was in 

London I lunched with

56

Smart, Harry Gullett, 

Raymond & Percy Hunter

who is back in England

again. At that lunch (at the

Waldorf) Barker of Hertford

College, my old College, saw me;

& he gave news of me to

Batterbee - another junior

of mine at Oxford who is

secretary to Steele Maitland

(also a contemporary of mine -

then he used to be Steele, President

o / Oxford Union, son of Flora

Annie Steele). Maitland 

wanted me to come & see

him; & I must d (he is Parliamentary 

Under Secrety of State for /

Colonies); and next day Batterbee 

wrote tt Bonar Law, Secy for / 

Colonies, wanted to see me. The

57

same day Murdoch, who

represents / Sydney "Sun Cable

Syndicate"  in "The Times"

office, had arranged for me to

meet Lord Northcliffe.
Well - I did all them.

I motored w Lord & Lady

N. down to Woking in in / morning

to their beautiful house at

Sutton. Lord N. is a stouter

more squarefaced lantern jawed

man than when I lunched at

his house away back in 1900 

or thereabouts. He was just

emerging then. His wife is 

the same sweet woman - 

a refined natural sweet mannered 

lady - that she was then. He 

himself is if anything more

downright. He doesn't want to

58

learn of the Dardenelles from

those who know. His mind is

made up already - that the

men who lead this Govt. can

do nothing tt is right; & he

gave me / impression (or else

something tt Murdoch sd did

so, incidentally & without the

speaker realising it) tt Northcliffe

wd like criticism & strongly

expressed dissatisfaction to

come from Australia at this

time because tt is / one

thing wh wd overthrow / Govt.

N. was very kindly in an offhand

sort of way but it was easy to

see th there ws no will on /

Northcliffe papers except his own.

He ws full of sneers at our own

side for dealing too ∧^humanely kindly 

59

& too honorably w / Huns.

He's a man who has some

qualities wh I respect; but his

decision strikes one as /

decisiveness of / man who

is ignorant - who flies to a 

judgment on half personal &

quite un-essential grounds,

without realising it. He thinks

he is acting from / highest public

motives, I've no doubt.

Old Murdoch is a young

Australian of the aggressively

type patriotic type; that is to 

say he makes a religion of

his Australianism & boasts of

it everywhere. He is nothing

wholly Australian & nothing except

Australian. I never realised 

the qualities of this type before,

but there's a great deal more in 

it than I was won't to give M.

credit for. These young Australians

60

aren't afraid of any other

creed & they'll go a long way.

They aren't altogether fair to / rest

o / world - there is only one side

of a question w them; but they'll

live & die for it - Australia.

Australia for them has all / virtues

& / only virtues; they're not

afraid to be democratic in any

surroundings - they think /

world wd be better for being

Australian & they tell it so

whenever they can & / world

won't like them for it. But

I believe tt they will make

Australia & Australian ideas

a great force in / world. Old

Murdoch is a little slow footed

&, like myself, heavy in his ideas.

But he simply lives for Australia.

Here Harmsworth uses his

Australianism as a whip to

beat / Govt with - & I daresay

[Newspaper clipping]

Kitchener Criticised

HAMILTON'S WEIRD DREAM

(By Our Special Representative)

LONDON, May 16.

According to "The Daily Mail" General 

Sir Ian Hamilton's Gallipolli diary,

which was published May 17, gives

a most curious picture of Lord 

Kitchener.

Sir Ian Hamilton says that Kitchener

sent off the first expedition [...]
 

He was no longer Kitchener of

Khartoum", says the diary. "He had

lost the faculty of making others act,

and hated the organisation with all the

primitive hatred of heart and soul

because he was himself an individualist.

He was the greatest master of

expeditions the world ever saw."

Sir Ian Hamilton relates a weird

and ghostly story. He says he was

lying asleep in a little camp bed when

he dreamt that icy fingers clutched 

his throat and dragged him down into

the Hellespont. Trembling he awoke,

and saw a shadowy figure in the tent.

the head remaining in the shadow.

 

61

he'll throw away / whip soon

- I am pretty sure he will as soon

as it has served / purpose he

wants to use it for. It is rather 

a shame to see old M's fine

Australianism used to this

purpose & M - who is simple,

in his way, isn't conscious of it.
When M. came back from

his brief visit to Gallipolli he ws

very impressed by / views of

Ashmead Bartlett & by what he

himself saw. He's a more honest

earnest man than Bartlett

but I think B. must have

read to him (or got him to read

for himself) / letter to / Prime

Minister wh he carried. It was

a very striking letter. Murdoch

also had a long talk w Walker

& a short one w Birdwood -

& w other officers; & on his way

back, or else in England, he

[Newspaper cutting]

 

Melbourne Herald

ty-first Year

ESDAY EVENING, MAY 18, 1920.

-----

SIR IAN HAMILTON ANSWERED

-----

Keith Murdoch Replies to Critic

-----

Report Fully Supported by British Cabinet
and General Munro.

-----

In reply to statements concerning him made by General Sir Ian
Hamilton in his Gallipoli diary, Mr Keith Murdoch, our Special
Representative, who is touring the Dominions with the Prince of
Wales, has cabled the following from Christchurch (N.Z.):-

The facts are these. In September the Dardanelles expedition 
had reached the most desperate of its crises. The offensives of 
August, though delivered, Mr Bonar Law told me, by more div-
sions than General Sir Ian Hamilton had said were necessary to
win a complete victory, had utterly failed. The troops were
exhausted. Few fresh Australian and New Zealand troops were
coming forward, and Sir Ian Hamilton was using them up in iso-
lated offensives and frontal assaults against strongly entrenched posi-
tions, which brought a heavy expense in life, without, in the opinion 
of those with whom I was in contact, gaining the slightest advan-
tage.
Part of our new Fifth Australian Brigade was thrown in, for
instance, against Hill 60, which was not vital to us, and lost fright-
fully. We were suffering 1000 casualties a day, including losses
from sickness. Bulgaria was entering the war, and, for the first
time, our forces were going to be up against big guns sent through
from Germany. Winter was coming on and most of the men were still in the rags of their summer clothing. The poorness of sup-
plies was in keeping with the lack of support from London.

The Vital Thing: A Fresh Mind

I have a perfectly clear conscience as to what I did. I went to
London and hit Sir Ian Hamilton as hard as I possibly could. I
thought the vital thing was to get a fresh mind on the spot. The
British Cabinet confirmed this view by recalling him with a week
of my report being discussed by it, and he was not again employed.
Sir Ian Hamilton misquotes one of many sentences I wrote about
General Sir William Birdwood. I think Sir William will agree that
I served him at times with hard work during the war, and that I 
showed my judgement of his leadership. The sentence misquoted by
Sir Ian was my frank opinion, and I thought it was necessary to state it,
because the recall of General Hamilton would leave a big possibility
of General Birdwood being appointed in his place, especially as Lord
Kitchener was a tremendous believer in General Birdwood.
The truly essential thing was a fresh mind. Had General Bird-
wood been appointed, the evacuation would not have come off.
General Hamilton was dangerous because he declared time and again
that an evacuation was unthinkable. General Birdwood was danger-
ous in the chief command, because later on, when Sir Charles Monro 
went out, he was the only corps commander who declared against
the evacuation, and the reason he gave was the moral effect on
British prestige in India.
Confidence of Two Cabinets

Sir Ian now says that I hit him below the belt. The violence 
of his language after four years is evidence of the hardness of the
blow. That makes me glad, but it was a square and fair blow. As
he says, I had the confidence of not only the Australian Cabinet but 
also the British Cabinet. The way they had been kept in the dark
about the troops of Gallipoli remains in my mind one of the worst,
because one of the most dishonest, incidents in the muddling of
those days.
I began with Sir Edward Carson, who was then chairman of the
Dardanelles Committee, and Sir Edward put me through a cross-
examination at breakfast before he accepted my statements. Sir
Edward is a good lawyer. He reminded me just the other day of that
strange interview. He took the facts to Cabinet, and I was in-
vited to meet nearly every member singly, and I met the all ex-
cepting Mr Asquith, then Prime Minister, to whom I had a letter
from Mr Fisher, the Australian Prime Minister, but he broke two
appointments. Mr Asquith was, of course, deeply committed in re-
gard to the expedition.
The most pregnant interviews were with Mr. Lloyd George and 
Mr Bonar Law. The former said to me:  "Your are writing to Mr.
Fisher?" I said I was. He said: "Then, it is your duty to let
Mr. Asquith have a copy of your letter for the British Cabinet."
I sent to Mr. Asquith a copy of a very long letter I had written
to Mr. Fisher (for himself, Mr. Hughes and Senator Pearce), and
it was printed as a secret paper by Mr. Asquith. I shall never regret that it was acted upon. As for its general accuracy I am
quite prepared to have it published and criticised. A Cabinet
Minister later told me that Sir Charles Monro's report bore out
my report, with a striking similarity as to the main facts, and within
a very few days of this report the troops were off the Peninsula.
Censorship Rules Observed
Now as to Sir Ian's charges. I broke no censorship pledge. I
was on Gallipoli partly as a newspaper correspondent and in this
connection I took the correspondents' pledge and kept it explicitly.
I was also there as a representative of the Commonwealth Govern-
ment, which had given me a commission of inquiry into certain
phases of administration. I wrote nothing for publication without
censorship. I wrote a report for the Prime Minister of my own county, 
and received his thanks and the thanks of the succeeding Prime
Minister (Mr Hughes). There was nothing in the pledge forbidding
that.  How could there be, when Sir Ian Hamilton himself knew that
I had come to write reports for the Australian Government? That
report was vital to the situation, and it compelled the wavering and
hesitant Coalition Government to make up its mind and send out General
Sir Charles Monro and Lord Kitchener, who both at once agreed
that evacuation was necessary.

I have met many generals at the front during the war and never
heard one question the absolute necessity of evacuation.

As to my war record, I leave that to the Australian Army, to
whom I devoted myself through the rest of the war as completely 
and unquestionably as I did when openly and squarely, for their sake,
and knowing what they thought as I did, I took the action, for which I
now have to bear a general rebuke.  General Hamilton's statement
that I said anything to him on this point is a fabrication, and so is
his statement that I thought the Turk a better man than those fight-

ing him. I understand why he invents these, but what puzzles me is
why he refers to me as his "guest" when I was not.
-----
The Gallipoli Diary
Kitchener Criticised

HAMILTON'S WEIRD DREAM

(By Our Special Representative)

LONDON, May 16.

According to "The Daily Mail" General 

Sir Ian Hamilton's Gallipolli diary,

which was published May 17, gives

a most curious picture of Lord 

Kitchener.

Sir Ian Hamilton says that Kitchener

sent off the first expedition
almost without instructions and then
persistently ignored its needs.
 "He was no longer Kitchener of

Khartoum", says the diary. "He had

lost the faculty of making others act,

and hated the organisation with all the

primitive hatred of heart and soul

because he was himself an individualist.

He was the greatest master of

expeditions the world ever saw."

Sir Ian Hamilton relates a weird

and ghostly story. He says he was

lying asleep in a little camp bed when

he dreamt that icy fingers clutched 

his throat and dragged him down into

the Hellespont. Trembling he awoke,

and saw a shadowy figure in the tent.

the head remaining in the shadow.