Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/119/1 - Photostats - Part 6

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On Active Service
Y.M.C.A.                           
WITH THE BRITISH                         
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
Y.M.C.A.
P.S. I enclose a picture of our concert party. The
small dog is a temporary member specially
enrolled to avoid the unlucky thirteen.
7448 HAC
att. APD Base Unit
Claims Branch
B.E.F. France
Sept 24. 1917
My dear Chas,
The latest big push has produced the usual
wave of optimism here, and our prophets are predicting
peace before Christmas. It seems impossible not to concur in this
cheering view, but I am wondering which Christmas is meant.
After the push the chief topic here lately has been our pay.
Wasn't it suggested a month or two ago in Parliament that the
infantry-man received scarcely a fair wage, considering the
dangers and discomforts he undergoes and the increased cost of
living nowadays? Apparently in answer to these complaints the
War office has evolved the brilliant idea of improving (relatively)
Tommy's position at the Front by docking his pay at the
Base. Yet it is doubtful whether those ungrateful fellows
fighting for us up the Line set much value on the benefit
which their kind Government thus confers upon them. And
the 'attached' man who has spent the best part of his health in
the trenches and been transferred to the Pay Corps to spend the
rest of it pen-driving, thinks it strange that he should be cut 

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down to a shilling a day when the conscript recruit sitting in
the stool next him gets 1^s/8^d. Truly the ways of the Army are
past man's understanding.
My latest hobby is fire extinguishing. That is, I am on "fire
picket" this month. I don't wear a helmet or hatchet or
hydrant, nor am I so Bavavoos as to have the dimmest notion
how to put a fire out with any of these professional aids. My
instructions are; "on the first alarm of an air-raid" (e.g. dog
barking or door slamming) "to immediately proceed" (one
always proceeds and splits infinitive in army language) "to the
office, remain in the cellar while the raid is in progress,
and see that no-one is loitering in the street" – no light task, as
we are not provided with periscopes, and in any case it is usually
pitch-dark.
Another little job I have drifted into is that of interpreter. In a weak
moment I consented to try my hand at putting into French(?) a billet
doux which one of my companions wished to convey to a local demoiselle.
Since then I have carried out several similar commissions: in fact my
services are now so much in demand that I am thinking of trying to
levy a little blackmail by hinting to my various clients that it is
a pity to waste their original letters and I intend forwarding these
to their respective wives, etc. in England – who will doubtless find
them highly entertaining – unless the said clients prefer to
buy them back from me.
Our concert party is still going strong. It is a pleasure to
think that one can give even a few minutes relief to the monotony of
some of those fellows in the hospitals, who see scarcely anything but the ceiling
for months on end. Au revoir, old boy, & best of luck to you.
Yours ever
Fred Burgess 

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12 August
My dear Bean,
It seems years & years since I last wrote to you, and
it is really a long time, but my reasons for not writing were as usual in an
Irishman, pretty complicated. At Canberra I felt ashamed of myself - possibly
quite absurdly - because I was physically unfit for enlistment & when by living
like an anchorite I did scrape through, three months broke me up; my leg giving
away. So, to avoid the ignominy of being passed out medically unfit I went 
to Rabaul & though I say it myself put in 18 months good work reorganising
the Native Affairs Dept., so if you ever hear of the Crawford system of
Indentured Labour Registration you'll know is was ME! The Germans swore by
it. My situation there was quite intolerable. My chief was a _^ major - a small frail person
with no administrative experience & little education. The staff consisted of
a lunatic asylum attendant, a barman, a shops steward & a planter from
Papua - and I was the junior private with the huge job of grafting
a complicated German system in to a British, with maddening instructions
issued by the Major without my consent (ahem!). So I saw my baby over
its teething & Pethebridge - who is the only able man there - gave me a
discharge as I said I wished to try again for the front. Two doctors
passed me at Victoria Barracks, & two more _^ at the Base Depot flatly refused to consider
me, so I asked for a Medical Board. I got it, & to my surprise it
was comprised of the two officers who'd already passed me!! 

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2                                                                 
They passed me for the Camel Corps _^ only (!!) & here I am - address _^ No 2713  Tpr E Crawford
Austⁿ Reserve, Imperial Camel Corps. Abbassia. Egypt. At Menangle
my leg failed after two months foot slogging. Reported it to the M.O. who
gave me some ointment, which I promptly pitched away. So short of
asking for a Board in the point of embarkation I could do nothing but
curse. At Fremantle 250 of us - including a Lt. Colonel & a number
of heads missed our boats & I had six quite pleasant weeks there as
the Commandants clerk. He is a Capt Forsyth & he spoke of knowing
Jack at Randwick. To finish up there I was put into isolation as
a meningitis contact. At Colombo I had, with the rest of them, another
week for the same reason & now, here, we're in isolation for mumps & my
leg has swollen & is giving me fits. (You'll observe my number - 2713 =
2 + 7 + 1 + 3 = 13!) The Doc. says I can have a bad [[?]] under
my knee cut out, but I fear the trouble - at least Rennie is of that
opinion - is arterial & in the thigh. Naturally the medical people
regard me as a malingerer, I suppose. I ought not to have re-enlisted, but
the life in New Britain was sedentary & I really thought I was got quite
well. - Perhaps malaria four or five times hasn't improved me to any
extent. I'll let you know how I get on. I'm keen on getting up
to Gaza, but if I do - operation or not - it'll be a hellish time quite
apart from war. If I do not it will mean Australia if I can
manage it, for an idle job at the base would drive one to drink –
a curse I've not been afflicted with for a long time - for me. Even
at my best as a soldier I'm about a million per cent less valuable 

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than I'd be on an administrative job.
This is chiefly I - I - I but I'd like you to know in case of my
dying and by complaining
If we meet before your book is published I can give you some really
depressing _^ & far from elevating details concerning our administration of the N.W. Pacific Islands.
The more I see of "democratic" administration in Australia, the more am I
convinced that an autocracy has its good points. I've struck two
jobs – Guinea & Canberra - and I'm sure that if they'd been required two
years before the Royal Commissions were appointed Australia would be
at least 1½ millions to the good. Curious thing about Canberra that I
swallowed my prejudices & wrote two columns for D.D. Braham, who
refused to publish it. Two years after a Royal Commission wrote the
facts in those two columns - in some cases word for word. I'll show
them to you some day. (Yes I'm still addicted to the I!).
Your mother wrote to me at Rabaul to my great surprise last
Christmas & I sent her xxx a copy of N^o 1 Gazette & a few other papers
which you will be interested in. Also the famous pidgin English
Gazette.
Before I forget many thanks for the Anzac book which [[Gilda?]] gave
me. It is A1.
I saw M^rs Buller & Miss Joan a good deal before I left.
M^rs B. seems very lonely, determinedly cheerful. Miss B looks well &
Joan is taking some tuition in drawing. She is quite grown up, but
is looking very far from well. It's a pity she can't get her typing work
 

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 4                                                        
in a newspaper office, because this class of work certainly is more interesting &
heaven knows I'm an authority in the wearing effects of ordinary legal and
commercial typing.
Did I tell you I was engaged to Joan? (dont be alarmed - this was
before THE me). Joan insisted upon an engagement of some kind in order to
be in the fashion so I nobly offered myself but flatly xxxx refused to buy a
ring. Now Joan regards me as the Second String. She wrote me the most
delightful letters during my exile in Rabaul & I'm quite fond of her.
She certainly has the literary gift.
Mrs B asked me to look up Jack Butler who she sd was in the
flying School but being myself in isolation that is out of the question at
present. Perhaps I've seen him in the air, for the planes make a devil
of a racket in the early morn making sleep impossible.
I think I told you that I only received your letter the morning of embarkation
from Sydney.
The French girl ought to be ashamed of herself not knowing Rabaul.
There is wireless communication between Australia and Rabaul (New Britain)
Kaewung (New Ireland) Manus (Admiralty Is.) Madang (New Guinea).
The wireless at Bita Paka is supposed to be one of the most powerful S of the
line.
Do write again & soon. It is very army here & I want letters badly. The
climate after the Tropics is just too splendiferous for words. Australia -
especially Menangle - paralysed me with its cold.
Goodbye. Yrs Ever
Erskine Crawford 

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S E C R E T.
THIRD AUSTRALIAN DIVISION.
Divisional Headquarters,
11th. October, 1917.
S.G. 400/12/30.
YPRES BATTLE GENERAL STAFF CIRCULAR No. 30.
The following is TIME TABLE of Operations for
12th. October, 1917. -

G.H. Jackson
Lieut-Colonel. -
General Staff.
DISTRIBUTION.

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111 High Street.
Oct. 4th, 1917.
After dinner, I got on the sofa and read Theosophy
and thought a lot. At 4 p.m. I had my first outing and
went to tea with Mrs Peacock and Percival played to me for
about two hours - making the loveliest music! He has a
perfect touch and puts his whole soul in into/it. I simply revelled.
He brought me home at 7 - and I was pretty tired,
as I'm still weak. Five minutes after he left me, the old
hooter yelled out and in ten minutes the Bang Boys were on
us and the worst pandemonium of all raged for over two hours,
almost incessantly. Sunday and Monday nights have been our
worst raids. The sky was simply alive with rockets and gun
flashes and shrapnel bursting all the time - and the guns -
oh! they were tremendous! Fights were going on all around
and overhead, and several shells from our guns fell in the
town - but did no damage beyond digging their own graves in
gardens. 'Ones fell just in the middle of High Street in
front of Herrett's and made a nice hole as it burst. It is
marvellous how we have all been kept safe. On Tuesday at
midday they came over again, it is thought, to spy out our
gun positions, but our guns kept silent and they flew northwards
and then towards London, but the Ilford guns keptx them
back, and they never dropped a bomb, but flew to their Kiel
Kennel, or wherever their sweet lairs are. And since then
peace has reigned – for the moon is waning and the weather is
breaking up. So we expect to be left alone till next moon –
unless our reprisals stop them altogether, which I greatly
doubt. It's a hateful move, but there seems no way out of
it. I do not like imitating their dirty ways- as you say,
it must be done, and they bring it on themselves. It was
rather gorgeous that we finished up our dear Lady's birthday
here with a salvo of guns – I might say many salvoes – to my
fancy, in her honour!
Katie Burgess
 

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Oct. 1st, 1917.
We had another awful night yesterday. I had just
posted a card off to you and at 7.30 the hooter went, just as
people streamed out of Church, and very few minutes after the
din began – and it was worse than any previous raid. The
barrage was simply terrific – the screaming shells incessant,
and the sky full of shrapnel bursting and star rockets. It
went on till nearly 10 – so we had a fat dose of Fritz in
two or three 1ots. Mr Stursberg was on duty in High Street
and came in every now and then to look us up as his wife had
taken shelter here. We sat in the dining room and every xx
now and then looked out of the front door, but it was too
risky to stop there. They were fighting overhead and all
around us, and bits of shell stuff fell all about us. One
shell fell inx the garden behind the Drill Hall and burst,
but did no damage, only dug itself a large grave. It's 
early and I haven't heard much yet. Mr. Shrewsbury says we
have a tremendous lot of guns in this line of defence, that
the countryside is fairly bristling with them, and certainly
it sounds as if we had hundreds. I never heard anything like
it before. We heard the aeroplane machine guns overhead
firing like mad – Fritz certainly receives nice warm welcomes.
Well – he will come again tonight, I suppose. It didn't
upset me one scrap – I feel all the time as if Ted, was caring
for me – as if many dear strong forces were hovering round.
Mrx Shrewsbury Stursberg is splendid – calm and plucky – she is a jewel,
simply cheery and smiling – such a Britisher! You know
one must sit tight and be a sportsman.
Katie Burgess