Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/117A/1 - October 1918 - Part 5

Keith Murdoch wrote
Billy a very good speech
on those lines - with
a really fine lofty start.
I wondered at / old chap
sitting there w his pipe
in his mouth, hammering
out on his old Empire
typewriter a succession of
powerful paragraphs.
Billy cut / speech
to blazes. He altered
all / beginning of it
(which ws much / best)
& left / end. That is
intellectual laziness; so
Dean says - he got tired
of altering it by / time
he ws half thro' it.

a little jealous for our
troops being out of it -
still, they had done their
bit if anyone did,
& they must have their rest.
Anyway, they were pretty

well played out - with
battalions getting down to
150 strong, or so, the end
has to come. 
(b) (The Canadians have
had heavier losses I fancy.
James told me that
they had lost 40,000
up to the taking of Cambrai.
I dont know what
our loss has been).
 

Well - that is just how
it seems to me."
Billy xxxx considers
tt it was is absurd to suppose
tt / war cd end without
conditions as to restrictions upon German
commerce. xxxx How abt
/ french industries wh /
Germans have crushed
& utterly put out of / market.
Are / Germans to be allowed
two or three clear years to
build up their markets
while / French are kept
at a standstill for want because
of / machinery xxx has been
crippled intentionally
by / Germans?

As we passed behind
Montdidier we saw that
there had been trenches
& dugouts, & dumps of
shells & used ammunition
cases right as far back
as the Amiens road.
The defences of Paris (I think
about Clermont) contained
the best wire entanglements
that I have ever seen
- tremendously deep;
deeper than the Hindenbg
line at any place where
I have seen it.
Hughes with Murdoch
Gilmour & Dean had
already arrived at the
 

come back with sticks
& set to work to tackle
me - supposing, when
you I begin to feel that I you
are getting equal to you me
you I come to you & 
say xxxx "I'll get out 
& leave you in possession
if you will let me go
quietly - I will go out
just as I came, wont
make "any fuss" -
What would you 
say to me? You'd say
Yes but how about my
wife & my daughter? how 
about my nose & my 
face? How about my
smashed up furniture?"

Hotel Crillon before
we did - beat us by
about 10 minutes.
Hughes was late for his
appointment with the
French President, Mons.
Poincaré - to receive from
him the Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour. But he
went off at once - abt
5.30 p.m. The President
received him & made
him a speech congratulating
him upon what the
Australian troops had
done in the war, & conferred
the Cross upon him.
I had a room with Box-
 

in order to save their
existence as units of the
A.I.F.
Hughes told me at /
same time what he thought
of Wilsons terms & / German
reply. "Look here - suppose
I go to your house one
day & break it open, &
smash all your furniture,
& rape your wife & daughter,
& make a heap of your
belongings & set fire to them
& break your nose &
black your eyes & batter
your face - & then you
go away & get three or 
four of your friends &

the hotel being very full.
Murdoch, and not Box, is Hughes
chief confidant & adviser,
though Box is very much
in his confidence also.
At dinner we had
the three leading English
or British journalists in
Paris - Adams of the
London "Times", Jerome of
the "Daily Telegraph"; &
Bruce of Reuters. They
were very much disturbed
- as was Hughes - by the probable
answer of Pres. Wilson
to the German appeal for 
an armistice. The Germans
 

to stay myself."
& then went on 
to speak of his decision
to stay for / Peace Conference.
It might be / end of him,
politically, in Australia,
but he was taking /
chance.
Murdoch had a
good talk to him on /
way down ^from Calais. Murdoch
thinks tt Monash 
is not really / man for
/ Repatriation - Why not
White? he says.
I know he is thinking of
Monash's relation to
/ battalions wh mutinied

appealed to him on his
14 points & subsequent
speeches. He answered that
he wanted to know who
the German Government
spoke for - & that it
was impossible to speak
of armistice so long as
they were on French &
Belgian territory. We got
this reply on the day that
I returned to France, Oct 10.
The papers yesterday today hinted
tt / Germans wd accept
these conditions. Hughes
is tremendously anxious
to ensure that Wilson shd
 

landed the x force in an
internal upheaval (the 
mutinies in / Bns). Do
you think he is human
eno' to really settle
be charged w /
responsibility of
the future o / force & of
repatriation. I think
he cd draw / scheme.
But I think I ought
to be there in order to
see tt it is carried out w
regard to / interests o / 
men - & tt is what I
intend to do. I propose
to stay - some Minister
ought to be here - I propose

be stiffened up in his
attitude. It is a tragedy
if Wilson makes a weak
showing now, he says - tjis
schoolmaster, this theorist,
who has not the experience
of xxx actual international
dealings that we have, whose
^people has not undergone even in
the aggregate the sacrifice
that our little Australian
people has undergone;
who has not suffered under
the direct smashing brutal
blows of the German Kultur
as the French & Belgians
have - that he should
 

an opportunity of judging
Monash & Birdwood.
"Birdwood is / man I wd
rather live with. He is
a man of kindness - a
man who thinks of others,"

he sd. "Monash is a
far more capable man
- he has / ability; but
he is out for himself all
/ time; like a Jew, showy."
. . . & so on. "Do you think 
he has the kindliness,
and humanity in his
nature to deal w men
at a time like this?" he
asked. "You see he has

come in, just when the
tide has turned after four
terrible years & undertake
the management of our
case & give it away for
us - this has roused
Hughes to a maximum of
indignation & energy.
France is the country to
act, he says. The protest
of Great Britain would
not go far in America
because America is 
prejudiced against Britain,
but the protest of France
would at this moment
effect anything - even
separate the American
 

catastrophe.
Billy said he had seen
Monash in England. Bully
had told him tt / Corps
must be brought out o /
line by Oct 15 & M had hurried over to tell him
tt it ws out by Oct. 7th.
Monash claimed / credit
of his bringing out o /
Corps, but Hughes told
me tt it was his own
work really - & I believe
him. John wd not have
done it xx or bn able to do
it but for him.
Billy sd tt he had had

people from their President,
if necessary. Therefore he
proposed to the English pressmen
here to strike at once, while
the iron was hot. Mons.
Clemenceau was is away
as usual, we believe -
or will be tomorrow. But
this news will surely bring
him back - if the German
reply is an acceptance.
And Hughes wants to get
Clemenceau to make a
statement which will go to
America & make certain
that the President does not
tamely accept the German
xxx offer, & allow the
Germans to get quietly out
 

world rather than accept
/ solution for wh he
now asked.
Billy Hughes had a 
talk w me this morning

in wh I urged  him tt
it was all-important to
get some plan of repatriation
(Box calls it demobilisation
- it is xxxx both really.-
inextricably involved in
each other) drawn up by
the A.I.F. at the earliest
possible moment - put
Monash in charge - Birdwood
is not the man for it at
all. It was urgent, I sd,
if they didn't want a

of France & Belgium when
(as he believes) their armies 
are within an ace of disaster.
The position is this so
Murdoch tells me: That
Turkey - if this respite had
not been given to her - wd
have made peace on Tuesday
next; & that Austria wd
have followed two days
later. And Germany has
only taken / steps she has 
taken because Austria &
Turkey told her tt if she did
not then they wd make
a separate peace. By 
Hughes way of thinking, Pres.
Wilson, by his weak terms
 

commission - he cd
have had it ^by lifting his little finger 4 years
ago. Four years ago
Edward grey offered him
a mixed commission
wh wd have given peace
& an honourable solution
to / world exactly as it
could today. The Kaiser
had chosen to reject it.
Instead he deliberately
appealed to his armed
strength as the arbiter -
deliberately plunged the world
in four years of war filled
with to the brim with newly
invented horrors - he thrust 
that untold misery upon /

[[*(7) 12th*]]
hinted at in his [reply -
has kept Austria Turkey
& Germany together at this
moment when they cd
have been separated.
Hughes is convinced tt
we have got / Germans
beaten - that we are
on / edge of a certain
& overwhelming victory.
And by allowing Pres. Wilson
to act as if he had /
authority o / whole of us
we are running / risk of
being robbed / fruit of our
victory by a visionary, a
theorist, an impractical
new-sprung statesman unversed