Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/17/1 - September - October 1915 - Part 8

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but they are not.  He is getting 
a good grasp of / war & writes 
a lucid well rounded article 
now not at all unlike Nevinsons.
He is a most en companion who will carry 
on a friendly argument - & a 
most illuminating one in wh he 
is obviously interested - for hours 
any day you wish.

Malcolm Ross is a kindly 
chap but I cant quite make 
him out.  He has bn an outspoken 
admirer of Bartletts from / day 
B. arrived here, almost to / point 
of Toadyism - but B. is so brilliant 
tt I think it may be just real 
honest admiratn.  At / same time 
I have heard him give away B. 
behind his back in a manner 
wh completely staggered me.  I dont 
really think he can be quite 
genuine but, after all, which of 
us are?  He has got some very 
lovable & excellent points, & this 
son seems to be a pretty brilliant

68
journalist - I havent seen 
much of Ross's copy itself, but
what I have seen seemed interesting.  

Nevinson is very game - 
was hit on / head at Chocolate Hill 
by a bit of shell & covered w blood, 
but ws back within / hour.

Lawrence is a game little chap too.  
A good deal has bn made out 
of Nevinsons wound.  I wondered 
today whether I should mention 
mine to Alston Rivers - they 
wd use it to advertise my book 
of wh they are publishing a new 
cheap edition.  In / end I cdn't 
do it.  After all wd I cant advertise
- I haven't done it & I wont do it.
Nevinson didn't either but of 
course he being a noted man / 
newspapers picked up / news at 
once whereas they didn't notice mine.

Capt. W. Maxwell - the Press censor here - is an 
old war correspt. who began his 
career in / Soudan campaign of Lord Kitchener.

69
He is a little man, squarely built, w a 
great row of ribbons / outcome of his various
wars -  tho' I fancy Bartlett has bn to 
quite as many [Maxwell: Soudan, Boer, 
Russo Japanese, Balkans ^w / Bulgars - Bartlett: 
Boer war (as a young militia officer), 
Russo Jap, Morocco, Tripoli (where he 
made / Italians hate him for his revelations 
& a German war correspt actually left
/ country w him in disgust at / Italian
severities!) Balkan w / Turks; Nevinson 
[[?]] Greek war, Spanish American (in Spain)
Boer, Morocco, Balkan (w Bulgars).  
The Balkan war ws a grievous disappointment
to Maxwell bec. / Daily Mail, 
wh then employed him, took up / articles 
of / Austrian Lieut. Wagner who ws 
w / Bulgars & who was writing 
exactly whatever sensational story / Bulgarians 
liked to give him & pretending tt he 
himself ws at / front in / thick of 
battles when he was dining in cafes.
Wagners whole story ws one audacious lie 
but / public of Europe believed him.  The 
D. Mail bought / right to publish his 
story & suppressed Maxwells altoghter
as contradicting it so tt at / end o / 
war he found his articles had not 
bn published.  Maxwell believes in / methods 
o / majority of / older war correspts
by wh you are ^involved in a sort of war w your 
brother war correspondents - A war 
in wh all is fair, or nearly all.  You
kept a strict secrecy as to your movements

70
in order to scoop them, & if a decent 
trick would keep them safely bottled up 
while you were out seeing things you 
played / trick without hesitation.  
That ws / old game - Maxwell ws 
apparently one o / better & more honourable 
players of it.  The man whom none 
of them have a good word to say for is 
Bennett Burleigh.  He (they say) used 
to obtain his news by a system of 
money payments to telegraph clerks etc 
(tho' this was not peculiar to him); would 
not as a rule go anywhere near a 
bullet but sat in a bold foreground 
w his friend Melton Prior who wd 
squat on a rock near him & draw a 
picture of Burleigh w / shells bursting 
round him - / shells ^put in as an afterthought. 
(One officer who met Burleigh on campaign 
however told me tt Burleigh used to 
go under fire in order to get his 
material).  Burleigh used to cringe 
to anyone in an official positn who 
chose to stand up to him & bullied 
anyone who didn't.  He finished up, in 
/ Russo Japanese war, so Maxwell 
tells me, by hiring a boat w money 
supplied by / Russians under an 
arrangement by wh he ws practically 
spying for / Russians on / Japanese
w whose army he ws supposed to 
be.  Maxwell His obituary in /

71
"Times" ws / cruellest bit of comme 
summary tt I ever read.

Maxwell began this war for / 
Daily Mail - right from / start, in Luxembourg 
& Liege.  I remember thinking his 
telegraphic articles (or / part of them 
wh ws telegraphed to Australia) 
interesting because one trusted / man who 
wrote them & not one account in a hundred 
at tt time ws true.  Maxwell got as 
far as Mons & then met / cavalry 
of British Army & ws turned 
back, or rather sent to / rear, very 
kindly, by some of his old friends 
in it.  He saw / outskirts o / Marne 
(where he ws helping / wounded to 
get into Paris day after day in 
his car) & / start o / Aisne.  He 
told me tt British officers told him 
how by / time they reached some 
forest S.E. of Paris they after 12 days 
sleeplessness they thought / trees 
were closing in on them & squeezing 
/ breath out of them, & when they 
tried to sleep they wd wake up w 
a start imagining tt they had committed 
some horrible crime!  M. used to work
for / Standard in earlier days but for 
many years did foreign affairs for 
/ D. Mail.  He used to have a pretty close

72
acquaintance w several o / leading men 
engaged in foreign affairs - M. Cambon for
one - & ws allowed a large sum by / D. 
Mail for entertainment.  Like all most men 
who have had to climb to fame in this way 
he has a very strong bump of respect for / 
official - but he is an good ^honest man & a good 
friend on / whole I shd say - & wrote a 
good if somewhat stolid article.  He has  
bn an excellent censor - not one word 
has passed wh worried / authorities 
- Lord Kitchener himself told Col. Hankey 
this before he came out here - & we 
have all bn perfectly satisfied w 
his censorship.  We have our joke abt 
him - he told us solemnly on / Victory 
a story of how when he was at some fete 
& / Princess Mary of Teck unknown 
to him ws sitting or standing by him & 
he wanted to know what he shd 
call her in his report she said 
"Call me May!" and years afterwds 
on / "Ophir", putting her hand on his 
arm, she reminded him o / touching 
incident. Well, old Maxwell has bn / 
right sort of censor, done his work 
well & tried to help us - sent us our 
articles back to correct, got them 
away quickly & so on.  He is an 
old hand at / game.

Bartlett is a strange mixture.  
He is devoted to / latest twopenny halfpenny 
music hall song & yet has an intense 
appreciation of Shakespeare & most o 

I told Bartlett changed his Hotel
at Mitylene owing to fleas.  
I told him I hadn't felt any 
during the night "Well you know 
Bean," he sd "Even a flea wont 
bite a bone."

73
/ classics - he can quote by / yard 
anything tt really has brains in it.  
He is an lover admirer of brains but I dont 
believe he has / least appreciatn of 
scenery, altho' he has of beauty in style 
& I believe his writing style has greatly 
improved. He is ludicrously bad at his 
spelling & is perfectly frank abt it as 
abt everything else.  He is easily / most 
famous war correspt o / day - he is a 
manager, almost overbearing - things always 
go his way when he's about.

Oct 3.  Alone in camp w little 
Lawrence - who is a dear little chap 
& a most interesting companion.  
I closed w / proprietor of a house 
in / valley today - for winter quarters.   
It is ^a moderately new house & we 
shall turn / sanitary picket into it 
first, if Lt. Taylor befriends us.  
Rent - I ws prepared to give £5 
a month.  Owner asked £2;50 we 
closed for 30/- wh he ws delighted 
to get.

Oct 4.   Arranged for some timber for 
a porch for our new house.  We have 
got rid of Pte Murray & Delme

79
Radcliffe is I think going to 
withdraw himself.  I cd be reconciled 
to him personally [[shorthand]], & called 
Nevinson [[shorthand]]