Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/37/1 - January - February 1916 - Part 2

9
condescension wh is flung at her
by / authorities o / mother country
as a gift from / gods. I suppose
I dislike / man so intensely 
because one can always see
best those weaknesses wh are ones own.
The Australian soldiers in /
streets seldom salute an officer
unless they know & like him.
The police under Capt. Brown have,
I believe, bn given instructions now
to arrest & punish any man who
doesn't salute. Its a very foolish
order & I hope they dont try to
enforce it - but I think Brown is
rather an injudicious sort of chap.
However, its a difficult job. We have
70 or 80 police at Horseferry Rd
who are really a branch o / London
military Police - or of the
metropolitan Police, at present.
They can arrest any soldier,
but if they get an Englishman
they generally hand them over to
the British police- & / British

10
police hand our men over to
us. Wherever an Australian
gets into trouble the Australian
police are now sent up there 
to take charge of him & he is,
if possible, dealt with by /
Australian authorities. The British
authorities have bn very wise in
this. The chief offence by a very
long way is leave - breaking; &
the most serious the alteration
of pay books, or / forging of leave
certificates. The alteration of
pay books has become rather too
common & some cases have bn
handed over to / civil authorities
to deal with.
There is generally a girl
yarning to / sentry in front o /
Commonwealth military
office in Horseferry Rd. The
office is a training college for
Wesleyans - a rather handsome
college building of two quadrangles.

11
in wh are / offices of / base, (pay
dept, records, Commonwealth Bank,
Post office, etc) The cubicles o /
police, & some for medical cases
(which used to be under Jack.) The
guard room is an old lecture
room. There is an inquiry office
full of maps, plans, guide books 
for telling men & officers where
to stay (at Xmas time there ws
hospitality for very many more
men than offered). And off /
back quadrangle a passage
leads to the Anzac Buffet of
8 rooms - a restaurant for
Australian soldiers where _^light meals
tea & so forth are provided free of
all charge to Australasian
soldiers.  Australasian ladies
do all / serving all day long &
everyday for no motive except patriotism
& Australian singers & pianists
constantly are at / piano in /
reading room. The Australian
war contingents Ctee in London
provides / funds; also / Colonial
office working w an Australasian

12
Ctee has provided a Boarding
House for our men, Peel house,
near by where a bed & breakfast
costs 2/- My cousin, Reimer
Maxwell, is in charge of it.
The Anzac Buffet, wh ws / only
one I saw, was in style,
quite up to the standard of a 
first class tea room - no
Pearce & Plenty or Lockhart
Cocoa Rooms about it but
such a tea room as the upper
classes wd use in England,
with a comfortable sitting room
besides.
Jock tells me tt quite a
few of our men have bn marrying
English girls. These marriages
are rather lightly undertaken in
some cases, I fancy. One of J.s
men in the 3^rd Bn - xxxxxxxx A
a most stolid dry bone of a
chap rather like the depressing
Peter Doody in the Arcadians -
came back to the office / other

13
day - & after much scratching o
his head he blurted out that
he too, had bn married in the
interval.
"Quite a nice girl, too, " he
said half to himself, reflectively
fingering / back of his head.
The next week he turned
up on sick parade wh ws
being conducted at one o /
two Australian hospitals in 
/ Country (Abbey wood, I think,
not Harefield where Birdwoods
little daughter of 20 is / idol o / 
men) - and was seen by
Sergt Wolsely, Jacks little
right hand man.
xxxxx He confessed in
/ same dry style tt he ws
suffering from a dose of gonorrhoea.
"Why, who gave it to you,
A ______ ?" Asked little Wolsely
"Not your wife surely?"
"Well - no - as a matter of fact it
was the chief bridesmaid", said the bashful

14
A _______ mournfully
These Australians !
Now for the Anzac Book.
I had corrected the M.S.S. on
the voyage home. As soon as we
arrived in England - on the morning
after my arrival, as a matter of 
fact - I went to the High Commissioner's 
office to find if they had done
anything about it. I thought that
after White's letter they wd at
least have made some inquiries
a & to / names of publishers -
But George Reid had done
nothing As a matter of fact I
xxxxx I was disappointed
as I thought tt although we had
not written him further particulars
as we sd we shd he wd at least
have taken some sort of action
to help us. White is a pretty
distinguished Australian & one
did expect tt something wd be
done on / receipt of a letter from
him under such conditions.

15
But you can only trust George
Reid to help you if he knows tt
you can help him. I have known
George Reid a long time, & small
Fry tho' I am, he knows tt I
understand him & he understands
me & there is no real cordiality
between us. Indeed it is a 
curious thing that tho many of
his subordinates have a great
respect for Reid's capacity- Smart
& Collins, for example - & are
very loyal to "the old man",
yet I do not know of any 
real friend that Reid has or
ever had. There may be some -
I have never heard of one.
Heney Editor of the "Herald",
warned me many years ago
about Reid when he left me as 
The S.M. H's correspondent in
London. "You will find George

16
Reid useful to you", he said,
"as long as you can be useful
to him". And that is true.
The moment you cant be useful
Reids interest in you goes out
as completely as the flame of 
a candle.
Well - Reid was giving
up the High Commissionership
within a month or so after getting
White's letter - & when Reid
gave up the High Commissionership
all Australians ceased to be of
any use to him - unless
possibly it may have been
some who could help him in
standing for the British Parliament
 - which he was doing forthwith.
Consequently when I rang Reid
up about asking the King if he
wd give us a foreword for the Anzac
book (which the King wouldn't do, in
the event, because he didn't want

17
to break a precedent in case he
was bombarded with requests
for similar prefaces) - George Reid
got quite testy over the 'phone -
at least there was a distinct
testiness in his voice "You know
the King can't do these things - He'd
be asked by everybody who had
a publication - Its quite a 
necessary rule - Besides, you
know, I'm not High Commissioner
now"- which is all true. But
George Reid might have sd it
in a different way, considering
what the book was - rather a
sacred one to any genuine Australian
which Reid isn't; & moreover
altho' he wasn't High commr
George Reid cd still have 
helped us - as he very well
knew.
Two days later G. Reid ws 
elected a member o / British 
Parliament. It is pathetic to
hear how British people
speak of him as "The representative

18
of Australia. "I hope
Australia will appreciate /
compliment wh we paid her in
giving Reid this seat," Steele
Maitland sd to me. "You know
the war _^its always looked on as the best seat / Conservative
party has - a perfectly safe
seat & conveniently close to 
the House".
I knew tt / people of
Australia wd not at all appreciate
Sir George Reid having stood for /
Conservative party; & wd not
appreciate his standing at all
as "the representative of Australia."
There wd be a feeling that
amongst many tt they were
not sorry / old man had won this
seat & his £400 a year after / rather
shabby way / Commth Govt
had treated him. He was known
to have saved very little money &
altho' he wasn't a man of any convictions
or to whose character or unselfishness
anyone looked up - still, such as he
was, he had served Australia very