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

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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
/ the 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 and 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 &

Sketch-see original scan.
It is our flag fight for it!

 

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

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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 the

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 - 

but they are / only ∧men people who

75

go about / streets comfortably

at present.

The existence of a big population

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

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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 ∧obstinately convincedly

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 censor 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 Wilkinsons

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 ∧or fall by

by his conviction! I suppose / answer

is tt he wd ∧always fall not remain I don’t 

standing long ∧I 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 Wilkinsons 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.Qs 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

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Irvine & Harmsworth

went out and chose a cafė -

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