Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/36/1 - December 1915 - January 1916 - Part 8

72
stares you in the face wherever
you look in England with the
quiet absence of the need for
any such effort, or / need for it,
in France. Wherever you go in 
England posters stare down at
you imploring you to become a
soldier defend your country.
They have used every trick
/ artist can think of to impress 
your sensibility - every catch
phrase tt can go home to any
little corner of your heart is
pasted up there for you to to have
its effect on you. Kitchener follows 
you with his finger & his two big eyes
“I want YOU!” The grey haired
mother is shown holding her son 
by / shoulder “Go, my son…”
The Tommy from / trenches, / Tommy
in / charge, / Tommy lying
out wounded are shown stretching
out their arms for you to come &

Diagram - see original 
73                        
help them; the ^poor drowned women &
babies of the Lusitania, the 
wretched ruins of houses blown 
to fragments by Zeppelins are 
all up there. It is as if 
someone said the artist said: 
"There, if the miserable wretch 
can’t be got at by all this
playing on his feelings,
what will rouse him?”

Every day some xxxx 
orator appeals to / crowd from /
pedestal of a statue in 
Trafalgar Square - to a crowd
half already in khaki & / 
rest mostly very young or very 
old or very weedy. Poor little 
white faced Londoners - I fancy
most o / men tt speaker
wants to appeal to, keep
very far on / other side o / square
when the corner of their eye as 
they approach warns them tt a

74
recruiting mtg meeting is on.

There’s no denying that 
the xxxxxx pressure of public
opinion in England today is
immense & seems to be growing.
Every day, whatever your reason
or excuse, it is harder & harder
to stand up against it. I went
about in khaki all the time
I was in England; but friends 
like Gullet told me tt /
pressure was getting well nigh 
unbearable & a good man
can scarcely stand it: &
Gullet is the man who has
been out all night between
the trenches. Those who are 
engaged in a public service
or who have “attested” for 
calling up wear a little badge
of brass or a khaki armlet w
a red crown on it - and
they are / only people men who

75
go abt / streets comfortably
at present.

The existence of a big populatn
wh ought to enlist did not 
strike me in England
at present. In / parts of London
wh I saw ther it was very
marked tt / young men 
had ^either gone or were in khaki.
I saw very few about who 
ought to enlist - a few of a 
very radical looking type &
some fair sprinkling of weeds.
I daresay in the big manufacturing
towns there would be more;
one saw far more soldiers
about / streets in England
than in France. There are
10,000 Australians wounded
or sick, there to begin with; &
there must be great numbers
training.

I was told in France tt one

76
o / chief reasons for granting 
leave to soldiers was to 
keep up / birth rate & save 
a dangerous fall in it. What
Australia will do in this respect
I don’t know. Jack in London
tells me that not 1 per cent 
of men whom he examined 
on enlistment had venereal 
disease; & he says tt quite
10 per cent of those whom he &
others now examine have it.
If we don’t look out this will
mean a most serious
deterioration in our race.
Old J. has some idea of devoting
his dear old life (wh he has 
nearly cast away 3 times in
Gallipoli) to save it.

There is no sign of the
misery of war amongst /

[*England to our English gentleman
means a beautiful view 
of exquisite lawns
& trees from his front windows,
a beautiful library with
a warm bright fire & a
cosy chair, a bath
every morning in a 
decent bath room,
refined friends, a genial 
club, cricket & tennis 
& boating on the beautiful 
Thames - he fights for
quite a thing which the
average Tommy does
not possess.

Whereas we Australians
fight all for very much 
the same thing - a 
comfortable little home
& garden in our 
unconventional country; happy 
healthy family.*]

They have never organised the
nation in England as in Germany.
They have  developed England by individual 
effort - England is all of the Manchester 
school really & the Liberals only differ
from / rest by being more convincedly obstinately
conservative - & the consequence
is tt feeling in England Is individual
not national - And / under 
classes, whom / state has left to look 
after themselves, have very little
ingrained care for / state. Poor little 
chaps - you can’t help feeling tt many o /
little Tommies who are undergoing danger
& hardship for their country are giving
something for nothing. The upper classes have
given everything - very nobly - & they got everything.

77
English workers - on / contrary 
all / stories tt we have bn
hearing of / extraordinary 
wave of prosperity amongst 
them seem to be true. The 
whole thing is hectic - purely due
to war industries & it will
fall thro' w an awful crash.
But at present there are - high wages,
soldiers' pay, separation allce 
& / employment of many o /
women at high rates in
factories - all to account for it.
The workers of England aren’t 
saving this money - they're
spending as they've never
spent before. The manager o /
Hippodrome sd tt last week
they took £1000 more than they
wd in a normal week. And /
Govt is too weak (or else / national
spirit is) to tackle this problem.
Instead they have closed / museums.

Censor: The censors at Imbros made
one particular point after evacuation.
We weren’t to say how many men the
motor lighters were capable of carrying nor
to lay stress on their use. Norman Wilkinson’s
book says (in big print opp. a picture:

“Motor Lighters. These lighters have been
extensively used in landing troops from the
transports. They have proved invaluable,
being capable of taking as many as 500
troops men at one time.” →

78
Upon my word, / more I see 
of politicians of every sort & kind,
from first to last, / more boundless
one's contempt for them becomes.
Oh for a man who can stand by or fall 
by his conviction! I suppose / answer
is tt he wd always fall not remain. I don’t 
standing long know that I believe it. Why shd politicians
never lead and always devote themselves to following.
I wasn’t a friend of conscription. 
But what I’ve seen in England
[*as compared*] ^with France this time has settled me as
far as this war is concerned. There’s
only one way. Why a man
shd have / right to refuse to 
fight for his country anymore
than / right of refusing to pay
taxes I’m blest if I can see.
-----
The naval censor told the military censors
(in London) tt he strongly objected to details
of the “blister ships” being published. A-Bartlett
of course published a description of them & here
in Wilkinson’s book is a picture of the Theseus
blister (giving the ship her name).

Also we were not to mention Imbros - yet
Punch did; the enemy bombed it; & there's lots of it here

79
In Marseille we went to the big 
hotel wh used to be Hotel de Russie,
- I forget the name; anyway it is,
amongst other things, a British 
Headquarters now. I think it
is a most objectionable principle
to have H.Q.s in these big hotels.
The Duke of Westminster was there,
attached I suppose to some staff 
or another. He looked a beefy enough
youngster, just right sort for the
fighting line.

The French have taken steps to
cut short any of this sort of indulgence
in Paris at any rate. War is serious 
business to them - the enemy is
occupying a  large part of their
country.  When we got to Paris
we said to ourselves: “Now we’ll 
get a real slap-up luncheon -
something really good for a change on 
our Gallipoli fare - the sort of 
things we’ve forgotten about.“ So

80
Irvine & Harmsworth
went out & chose a café -
the Cafė de Paris. I met them 
at 1.30 & we went along &
chose were shown to a table. We
picked up the menu & began to
discuss settle on our various
tastes, & asked for the wine
card. Harmsworth & I began
with oysters - we had just
finished them when the waiter
came up & said that he ws very
sorry but he ws afraid we wd 
have to go! The restaurant licence
wd be taken away if we stayed!
At 2 o'clock the restaurant
keepers have to shoo all people
in military uniform out of their
places & can't have them in again
until 5.  We protested again that we
had only just begun - & as a
concession they let us bolt
down various bits of the lunch

 81
we had promised ourselves, 
but it was a real fraud, that 
luncheon. Just before leaving
we decided to have tea at
Rumpelmaiers (?) in the 
Rue de Rivoli. We called a 
taxi (the least adventurous driver
I have ever seen in France) & he
finally landed us there; &
the girl inside sd she ws sorry
M'sieu but she could not
serve us. Harmsworth was allowed
to buy a cake but we could not 
eat anything on the spot.  Well
- that's the right way to win the
war though it is inconvenient 
to the visitor.

There is a part of the English
nation which does take this war
very seriously - & that is the
growing class of well educated
British men & boys - those to 
whom the state is now at last