Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/40/1 - February - March 1916 - Part 3

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fellows pretty closely for
18 months now. And at /
end of it I shdn't like to
say whether / New Zealand
discipline ws better or /
Australian. That is to say -
if you give them an order - which
wd be / best to carry it out.
I don't know tt it wd be /
New Zealander!”
And I know what he
means. Put three men - a
British Tommy, a N. Zealander
& an Australian all to carry
out, say, a difficult piece of
tiresome sapping at Anzac;
or give them a night attack
& tell them tt they are only to

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use / bayonet, not to fire
& not to cheer; or tell
them they are to collect & burn
all rubbish & not throw it in
an insanitary manner down
/ main gully; or tt they
mustn’t empty their
waterbottles before night fall
- & wh o / three will
obey you to / letter? I don't
know - I too have seen them
through / whole o / time at
Anzac, & I shdn’t like
to answer tt question; but
if I did I would almost
be inclined to back /
Australian. And if we
who have watched them
closely x and critically for

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all this time cdn’t give
you a definite opinion
upon tt point, how can this
British staff, wh has never
seen / men at all except
in / streets of Cairo & Ismailia,
give you one?
The British off
Shortly after I got here I
called on White & he asked me to
dine with Gen. Godley & himself
- Godley was then commanding
1st Anzac - Birdwood commanding
nothing in particular & White
C. of Staff to Godley. At tt dinner 
- no it ws a lunch - in their
fine H.Q. (rather like the H.Qs in
rich woolbrokers houses around
Lille) the question of Hamilton

We work an to
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22
arose. Godley was very indignant 
with Murdoch for the strictures
& criticisms made by him in
his letter to Fisher (which became
a British cabinet paper, & x of
which they heard at Anzac before
the evacuation tho’ I didn’t 
know it).
“Well”, sd Godley, "I always
thought Hamilton must have
bn a strong man did a very
strong thing when he decided came to the decision
tt we were to stay at
Anzac.”
“That was Thursby’s
decision, Sir“ said Brig.Gen.
Carruthers who was there- 
“I remember when he saw

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tt / landing had made
some headway at Anzac
he was very much impressed
with the importance of pushing 
in there - bringing the
troops round from Helles
to it - & so was I. He couldn't
put it before Hamilton himself
but he put it strongly
before the Admiral - they
didn't do it though.”
“Well, I may be wrong”, sd 
White, “but I think still tt / advice opinion
I gave Gen. Bridges then, when,
he asked me, was right -
that the right thing to do ws
to withdraw the troops from
Anzac. We knew nothing
about / Helles landing but

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we knew the Anzac landing
had failed - & as it had not
succeeded the right thing was
to get out of it & use / troops
where they could be effective.”
(This was quite a
new view to me, but I
daresay it really is the
right one - Thinking it over
in fact it is) one becomes
rather persuaded tt it really
ws / right thing).
"But if I remember right 
Thursby said they cdnt have
got the ships up in time
to do it,” said either Godley
or Carruthers.
“Oh yes they could - 

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I know they sd they cdn’t
but if we’d twisted their
tails they ad have done it” 
sd White.
“I always take it,” I sd,
tt Hamilton's real failure
was in not making up his
mind after May 8^th tt
it ws impossible to get
thro’ ^from Helles by taking by Achi Baba -
& for not then & there
trying some other way -"
“I can see as clearly
as day why Braithwaite
wouldn't do that,“ White
sd - I know exactly what
he’d say to himself. He'd
say: ‘Any plan is better
 

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than a changing of plans’-
‘when you’ve made up your
mind to do a thing tt
way - go on doing it
tt way even if it’s a bad
way! They had made up
their minds to make the
great push by Helles -
we knew tt before landing -
& I’m sure Braithwaite wdn’t
depart from it.”
- and I expect tt is 
/ explanation of a good deal
tt has puzzled me too. Most
people put down Braithwaites
persistence to sheer jealousy,

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There is jealousy in / Army
too. When I used to read of
generals being in / same country’s
army being so jealous of one
another tt they cd scarcely
act together I used to
doubt whether such things
weren’t / imaginatn of
historians. At any rate, if 
one believed that such a state
of affairs existed in France in
1870 it never entered ones
head tt it cd possibly 
exist in / British service.
But here in Egypt we
have been witnessing what
the Army calls the Battle of
the Ms - Murray versus
Maxwell: and now

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Murray has signally won
& Maxwell goes off to England
defeated within a few days.
It is really only a side
fight of the much larger
fight of Robertson v. Kitchener.
Maxwell is a “Kitchener
man” & Murray is a
“Robertson man” - & now
that Robertson has defeated
Kitchener out go the
Kitchener men along with
K. I daresay its better
for / country tt Robertson
should conduct / war
rather than Kitchener.
Kitchener was rather acting
as a Commander-in-Chief