Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/37/1 - January - February 1916 - Part 9

79
its A.M.C units are to be
formed here; & the 4^th & 5^th
Divns will be formed here.
Came down in train w
Howse who is now ^Surgeon Major General
(Brig. Gen. only for one day, I believe)
& has the only command common
to both army corps of our force,
& the post of D.M.S. of the A.I.F.
(If he went back to Australia tomorrow
he wd revert to the rank of Capt.
& tempy. Major A.M.C. - the
most remarkable advancement
in our forces). He's a remarkable
chap. xx I hear in the ambulances
of the results of his work - surgeons,
physicians, organisers shifted
about in a general post & 
finding their proper places;
they say that for the first time
at the date of the evacuation
our hospitals (both in Egypt &
on the Peninsula) were ready for

80
a really heavy influx of wounded.
No 1 ^Aust. General Hosp. at Cairo for
example (Heliopolis Palace Hotel)
expanded to 5000 beds from about
3500 - Over staffed hospitals
are having their staffs reduced;
men are being found on units in
Cairo enormously in excess of
their requirements & are being
begged bribed urged pushed
(anything but "ordered", Howse 
says - you mustn't order an
Australian; you may point out
to him that he gets promotion by
going & loses it if he stays but
he wont stand an order - which
isn't true but I know what he 
means) back from these snug
backwaters into field units.
Finances are being considered -
e.g. two ladies - the wife of a
British General in Cairo & one other -

81
are being driven every day
to & from their Red Cross work
at Heliopolis Hospital in
a motor ambulance costing
Howse says, £3 a day not counting
wages. The work could be
done by one sister living at
the hospital. The General ladies
could go to & from their work
for 4d a day in a tram
- practically from door to door.
But the General says: "If his
wife who is giving up her whole
time & sacrificing all her
comfort & home life to this
Red X work cannot have
this little bit of consideration
shown her, she is not to do
the work at all." As Howse

says - that is much the best
solution.
The question of these ladies in

82
Egypt is a rather thorny one.
I must say to me it seems very
much better to keep them right 
away from war. They are a 
distraction which does not go well
with war service. The Australian &
N.Z. nurses are competent sisters
chosen for the  work & they wear a
rather stiff grey & red uniform. The
Canadian nurses are largely young
girls who were not nurses before
the war & who wear a very picturesque
light blue dress with a very handsome
dark blue & red overcoat ornamented
with an officer's gold stars. There's
no question which is the most
attractive to the officers - naval
& military officers swarmed
round the Canadian hospitals.
Also it seems to me there is no
question which is best for war - 
the Australian Govt is right &
the Canadian Govt wrong.
The General's wife presents

83
another problem. The wife of
a Surgeon Genl - for example. If
she is in Egypt ^w her husband & applies to a
young R.A.M.C. officer for a ^particular room
for her Red X work, or for some
other privilege which she ought
really not to have - how can he
refuse her? The It is not right
to have these women here. An 
order has been issued
forbidding British French or
Italian women from landing in
Egypt & the order is being strictly
enforced - one of our chaplains
could not get ^leave for his wife to come
altho' it was only by a 
mistake ^of the Pay Dept. that she had not come
previously.
I saw Col. Lee of the 9th
Battn. in Cairo yesterday. Now
Lee is one of the men who
ought not to be allowed to

84
continue in the forces; there's
no mistake about that -
The A&N.Z.A.C. staff ordered him 
to be boarded & sent home - &
he was boarded in Malta & sent
to England (as no other boats
were available). In England he
was, I believe, boarded as fit
for duty & was allowed to
remain for 5 months; & it
was a surprise to me to see
him in Cairo yesty.
Now the question abt him is
this. Medically he is fit for duty.
A medical board has quite rightly
said so; if it had boarded him as
unfit he might have got a
pension, & it is utterly wrong tt
Australia shd have to pay pensions
to such men. The staff - that is
Birdwood - ought to send him
back w a plain statement tt
he is unfit to be given a

85
command in our army
owing to as shown by his action on & 
after the day of the landing. But
Birdwood for some reason - or
White, or whoever is responsible -
doesn't like taking this responsibility.
Birdwood is unsure of what the
Australian Govt might think - I
suppose. It was the same with
Gen. Hughes (whom he himself
told me he didn't want back)
&, so Howse says, with Courtney
who ^they say did not visit his own
trenches but got a C.B., -
(I'm not sure if the statement
about Courtney isn't exaggerated) -
anyway abt Hughes & Lee it's
not).
The result is Lee will
probably go back to Australia
& get a command - possibly
a high command there. Howse

86
says there's a possibility
of Bolton coming back with
a brigade! Of McVea
coming back in a good command.
Good God! One man like that
can half annihilate a brigade
in its first action
to say nothing of spoiling it in
its training.
Howse is given to
exaggeration & I hope he
was pulling my leg. If
any of those officers do get
a high command - or any
fighting command - through 
the Australian Govt not
having been told / truth about
them, then Birdwood or the
staff are guilty of a very a moral 
cowardice which will have
very serious results.

87
Frid Feb. 18^th. Stayed night at 1^st
Aust. Stationary Hosp. in their 
Convent at Ismailia. Howse
was also their guest. His
cynicism is very clever & he's a
brilliantly good head in many ways; but
one it doesn't show up well
beside the human gentleness of
a man like Col. Powell, our host,
who sat between us at mess.
Howse says all his regimental
medical officers in the 1^st Divn were
splendid men w two exceptions _
two who cracked up at once. The
others were "almost perfect," he sd.
Certainly my old brother Jock did
splendid honest work for them.
I came down by Du Boise's
launch to Serapeum. Poor
chap - he hasn't even yet
heard news of his brother. "I
have had a week of hell" he
told me," & you can imagine
what it must have been for the
poor old mater."
At Serapeum I took the

The 4^th & 8^th ^Field Coys of Engrs (wh were
originally formed in Egypt for the 2nd
Divn. will be ready wh afterwds received
its companies (5, 6, & 7) from Australia),
will be available for / new Divns - The
3 coys of each 1st Divn will prob. form another,
& those of 2nd Divn another - wh leaves 5 to come
_____________________
Inf: 3rd Bde will form
49, 50, 51, 52
from 9^th 10^th 11^th 12^th & the men
transferred will wear their old
colours with a ring. "I hope so"
sd an officer o / 9^th to me - "I shdn't
like to be ^called a Super - Dinkum".
The men call the 2nd Divn the Dinkums
bec. they are sd to aver tt they were / Real
Australians; the 8^th Bde are the
Super Dinkums; & the lot now arriving
are the War Babies!
88
Anzac Book proofs round to 3 regiments 12, 7, .8
2 field ambulances (2 & 1) & 2nd Bde H.Q.
I find tt besides my bed & pack disappearing
from my luggage en route from Mudros
Jacks sleeping bag has been ripped open
& one whole side of it, ^wallaby skins & all,
cut right away with a knife - what
a set of thieves we have with us. [*Later
experience suggested that these might have been Arabs. 2/4/19*]
The reorganisation is going ahead
on the principle tt each of our
old divisions send part of its
personnel to the units o / new: 
division; e.g. 7^th Bn seems to be
forming the 53^rd. They are sending ½ the men away at once.
Irving has 15^th Bde; Glasfurd
the 12^th (I believe) and Col. Elliott
another,. & Glasgow another.

[*Later:
[This of course is wrong - 4 Divn contains 4, 12 & 13 Bdes
& 5 Divn 8, 14 & 15]*]