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 most ca 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 admiration.  At l 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

 

11

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 l hour.

Lawrence is a game little chap too.  A good deal has bn made out of Nevinson's 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 l end I cdn't do it.  Nevinson didn't either but of course be being a noted man l newspapers picked up l news at once whereas they didn't notice mine.

Capt. W. Maxwell - the Press censor here - is an old war corrispt. who began his career in l Sudan campaign of Lord Kitchener

 

 

 

He is a little man, squarely built, w a great row of ribbons l outcome of his various wars -  tho' I fancy Bartlett has [??] to quite as many [ Maxwell:  Soudan, Boer, [Ross?]  Japanese, Balkans w bulgars - Bartlett:  Boer war (as a young militia officer), Russ Jap, Morocco, Tripoli; where he made l Italians hate him for his revelations & a German war correspt actually left l country w him in disgust at l Italian severities!)  Balkan w Turks, Nevinson [???] Greek war, Spanish American (in Spain), Boer, Morocco, Balkan w Bulgars.  The Balkan was ws a grievous disappointment to Maxwell bec. l Daily Mail wh then employed him, took up l articles of l Austrian Lient. Wagner who ws w l Bulgars & who was writing exactly whatever sensational story l Bulgarians liked to give him & pretending tt he himself ws at l point in l thick of battles when he was dining in cafes.

Wagners whole story ws one audacious lie but l public of Europe believed him.  The D.Mail bought l right to publish his story & suppressed Maxwells altoghter

as contradicting it so tt at l end o l was he found his article had not bn published.  Maxwell believes in l methods o l majority of l older was 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 [sc???] as to your movements.

 

 

in order to scoop them, & if a decent trick would keep them safely bottled up while you were out seeing things you played l trick without hesitation.  That ws l old game - Maxwell ws apparently one o l 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 l shells bursting round him - l 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 position who chose to stand up to him & bullied anyone who didn't.  He finished up, in l Russo Japanese war, so Maxwell tells me, by hiring a boat as money supplied by l Russians under an arrangement by wh he ws practically spying for Russians on l Japanese w whose army he ws supposed to be.  Maxwell  His obituary in l

 

 

"Times" ws l cruellest bit of comms summary tt I ever read.

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

 

 

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

Bartlett is a strange mixture.  He is devoted to l latest two penny, halfpenny Music hall song & yet has an intense appreciation of Shakespeare & most o 

 

 

I told Bartlett changed his [hdnt?] at [??????] owing to fleas.  I told him I haven't felt any during the night "Well you know Bean" he sd "Even a flea wont bite a bone"

/ classics - he can quote by / yard anything tt really has brains in it.  He is an admirer of brains but I dont believe he has l least appreciation of scenery, altho' he has of beauty in style & I believe his writing style has greatly improved.   He is ludicrously bad & his spelling & is perfectly frank albiet as abt everything else.  He is easily l most famous war correspt o l 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 l proprietor of a house in l [valley?] today - for [weal?] quarters.   It is a moderately new house & we shall [turn? ]  [sanitary?]  picked into it first, if Lt. Taylor befriends us.  Rent - I ws prepared to five £5 a month.  Owner asked £2.50 we closed for 30/- wh hw ws delighted to get.

 

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

 

 

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