Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/44/1 - May - June 1916 - Part 2

64     10
Military office there - enlarged.
H.C. Smart (who is the brains of
that place) will I hope now
be taken into the new arrangement,
but Newton Moore will be
replaced by Sellheim. With
Smart, Sellheim may do well.
Himself he cdnt make up
his mind to do anything.
Butler has seen Smart; White
& Birdwood know of him. So
I think he wont be extinguished
now. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Padre
Dexter came back from London
breathing contempt abt Smart
& his office. He had bn with

Newton Moore for a morning.
So evidently the strings are
being pulled agst Smart over

there.
 

64       11
I told little Bazley (who
has done immense work in 
the distribution o / Anzac
Book) tt if he ^ever thought of going
for a clerks job (w sergts.
stripes & pay) he must do
so. He sd. "No thank you Sir.
I've begun this war with you
& I'd like to end it with you
if possible." He's a splendid
boy.
The air is mist &
damp. There has bn little or
no firing now for some 
days. The unease of a
few weeks back has quite
gone.
And there's tt same
beautiful throated nightingale
singing thro' it all. We 
listened to her for 10 minutes
last night - Smith who 

64     12
had never heard one, &
Ross & I: Ross says the
Tooee or Tui beats him;
but I think this night we
were all persuaded_ Ross
doubtfully. The bird had such
endless phrases - liquid,
full, & never the same twice
over; if he had one snatch
he had twenty - as dainty
as a lyric.
May 13. Hear from Smart tt
5000 odd Anz. Books have
been sent from London at 
last. They will come via Havre.
Went out & inspected
1^st Anzac Light Horse Regt &
Cyclist Bn w Birdwood &
White. They have formed
Otago M.R. (1. Sqn) B Sqn 4 LH.,
& A Sqn. 13 L.H. into this regt-
 

64     13
Eventually 4^th L H will be
1^st Anzac L.H. & Otago & 1 Bn L H
will be 2nd Anz. L.H. The 
New Zealanders certainly looked
extraordinarily well turned out
& smart - burnished buttons,
neat uniforms, well groomed
horses. The 4^th L.H. are just
as fine a body, perh. better
tho' I'm not sure of this; but
our Aust. uniforms dont
look so well - there's no doubt.
13^th L.H. are not so good.
White says they had a bad
Colonel to start with - Dean,
who has gone back to
Australia.
N.Z. are a bit short of
men but 500 rfts are
coming up. Their new battalions
look very fine but are a bit
soft.
 

64     14
Griffiths a Lt. Colonel - never
ws an honour better deserved.
He is a modest chap. When
He honestly hates all trappings
& uniform - & will get out of
his rank the moment he can
do so after / war. The one
nuisance, to him, at / moment
is saluting.
Same here, as regards
saluting. I think it is enormously
overdone; but I also suffer
because ^tho ‘ many o / men
salute me thro' courtesy (& one
is particularly anxious not to
offend them by not answering
it) many do not & there is
no earthly reason why they shd.
One doesn't like to appear to
look for a salute ^I hate it but you 
must look at them to see if they
salute - & to a chap as
 

64     15
x The owner of the Chateau La Molte -
 self conscious & sensitive as
I am this makes walking up /
street  a rather a thing to be
dreaded. I ^ have to make a rule of
going thro' / village once each
way on foot every day, or
I should shirk it altogether.
15th
May 18th Monday
It was on night of April 23rd
-24^th ^between 11 & 1 the Germans signalled

w lamp over their parapet
near S. of our line:
Australians go home.
go ... in the morning
You will all be dead tomorrow.
We are good.
I suppose we answered something
or the conversation wd have dropped.
Dined with the Baronne ^X tonight,
Gen Birdwood, Gen. Owen, Gen.
White, Gen. Carruthers & Gen.

64     16
 Lotbiniere - & her cousin
the Count or Duc. d'Orsay
(a Belgian officer) made the
party. She is rather like the
old French noblesse, & fits the
Chateau well, but modern France
not at all.
There ws some distant
bombardment, for a change, today.
The Govt. has refused Ross &
myself leave to take photos.
I asked White, & I am going 
to fight this because there is
no reason in it  to
treat us along w / other war
concepts..
May 16^th Went with Herbertson
to Bac St [[. Manse / manor ?]]where
I worked his slides while he
lectured on aeroplane
photographs.
 

64     17
May 17 Worked at Anzac
Book figures all day.
Committee mtg to decide on
presentation copies. They
cd'nt well give me one so
I suggested another instead.

May 18 Brooks called in in
evening. The War Office - no,
G.H.Q., sent him to
photograph Australians,
post haste, in order to
checkmate myself & Ross.
He tells us tt / Canadians
have their own Official
photographer & G H Q expects
we shd ask for it.
Really they are the limit.
May 18. Anzac Book figures
all day.
N.Z. in the line at Armentieres
 

64     18
May 20 Trying to get straight
the Anzac Book orders to 
Divisional Units who have,
since paying for the books, lost
many of their men. They were
amongst earliest to pay in
Egypt. Managed it largely
by writing out their acquittance

rolls  for them. It takes time
& trouble. But I have more time
than they & so the policy in these
tangled cases is to do practic all
the work of drawing up acq. rolls
etc. & sending them to them w
/ names already filled in.
May 21  1800 books arrived
at Hazebrouck c/o Corps Ordnance
Officer. Went in in / evg. (Bulter
gave me / Gen. Staff car) w
Ross, Herbertson & Bazley &
packed up xxx or addressed
abt 70 parcels for different
 

64     19
Units.
Ma This morning, in the
Forest of La Motte, there was
a contest in tree felling
betw. the Australian, N.Z.,
& Canadian Divisions. The
The band of our mining Bn
turned up & played & 200
or 300 soldiers must have 
bn lookin’ on. The road
to it looked like / road to /
picnic races - between /
great trees - 2 busses full
soldiers, some lorries,
about 12 cars, men on foot,
some officers riding. Gen. Alderson
ws there & Birdie (looking his 
best); & most o / Press from G H Q &
the dread cinematographer.
(I must say he & Brooks are
very game indeed. Brooks
wanted to go into a big shell