Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/101/1 - February - March 1918 - Part 4

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Northcliffe press/attempted to engineer this, and fill in from

your imagination the intrigue which goes on in the newspaper

office before some member of that mercenary staff is detailed to

write the article which is to stab its victim in front, or in the

back, or wherever he is most vulnerable, your sympathies automatically

fly at once to the opposite extreme. One cannot help

feeling that however dull or restricted in his outlook Sir William

Robertson may be, he is fifty times the better man than the

miserable curs that are yapping at him.
Beaverbrook has just made his appointments to the various

branches of his Propaganda Department. I see that he has chosen 

Northcliffe to help his propaganda in enemy countries; Rudyard

Kipling to help it in Great Britain; and Donald of the "Chronicle"

to control it in neutral countries. Donald, I should think is the a

man with the right morale for this, but Rudyard Kipling's mixture

of jingoism and deliberate brutality, which is a pose which he wants

to force upon the English, and not natural to the English at all, 

would be a good deal better out of employment than in it. As to

Northcliffe - it seems a bit strange to employ as his the man who is to

appeal to those friendly to us - that is the socialistic element -

in foreign countries, the biggest anti-socialist in Great Britain.

FEBRUARY 22
The Conference which was to be held at Corps Headquarters
to-day for Sectional Histories (i.e. the history of

Medical problems, the Artillery problems, the Veterinary problems,

and so forth of the A.I.F.) has been indefinitely postponed. Accordingly,
I set off about midday to visit our 3rd Tunnelling Company,

which Cutlack tells me has done wonderful work in the chalk near

Lens and Bethune. I asked Cutlack, when he took over from me, to

visit a numberof these different units like the Tunnellers and Light

Railways and Heavy Batteries (although the latter are now with us)

which I hadnot time to visit myself before, but which have splendid

stories in the most cases.

The 54th (55th) Heavy Battery was very much disturbed by my

report saying that their guns had been list in the Cambrai fighting.

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As a matter of fact, I got this report from their C.O. - Major 

Bates, who, it turned out, was at the time of the German attack

at Cambrai in Amiens, where he had gone to draw pay, and stayed for

several days' leave. Bates was not at the fighting himself and

the case is now being inquired into. But as a matter of fact,

the story which he told me turned out the be perfectly correct.

I visited the Battery in Bailleul today, and after a short preliminary

sparring, found the offices quite mollified. At the time

when my article was written, December 6th, the Battery at first

thought that two of its guns had been lost and had recovered with

difficulty one of the other two. Later on, they found that their

two forward guns were still within reach and salved them with the

help of the tanks.

We spun across country very fast in our own old car, and 

actually reached the 3rd Tunnelling Company at Noeux les Mines

before they had finished their lunch. Sanderson, their C.O., was

travelling to Armentieres that day to see part of the Company.

They have an enormously extended front to look after. Two sections

at Hill 70, one at Hulluch, and one away up by Armentieres.

Accordingly, he asked me to go round with himself and a Canadian

General the following day. I chose this opportunity to visit

the Canadian Corps Headquarters to get into touch with them about
the University which they are running behind their lines. They

the University of Vimy Ridge. An officer in the 3rd Signalling
Company named                         wrote to me, asking if they could

not have something of the same sort started for us. I asked White

if I could look into it and report upon it, and he got me this

authority from Birdwood. It seemed that the Canadians given their

troops lectures, when they are out of the lines.  It would be a

good thing for our own men if they could have this mental occupation
in their idle intervals. I was not sure whether White would

favour it, because there is a great deal of military training to 

be done, but he was favorable from the first.  I had an idea that

he might look upon it as a distraction from the concentrated

energy which ought to be devoted to the war. At Canadian ^Corps
Headquarters, an officer, Major Daniels, who was dealing with the

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University was out, but I saw Willesden, who is now their official

War Correspondent, and who ^was with me as a private correspondent in

the trips around the Fleet in November, 1916. Boddy and I hurried

from there to the Correspondents' Chateau at Rollencourt.

The British correspondents were as hospitable as ever - good

fellows they are. I found that although they are constantly

writing of the the German preparations for an attack, they are as

sceptical as most of the rest of us. I told them that wherever

I had been, I found that although a general attack seemed to be

fairly expected, the troops on tat actual point could not believe

that they themselves were likely to be attacked. This was what I

found at Corps Headquarters, and also at the 3rd Tunnellers. Gibbs

said "Well, do you know, that has been exactly our own experience

everywhere".

Back to the Tunnellers Headquarters.

I forgot to say that at Corps Headquarters last night Coleman

told me that General Foott is to come over from England, where he 

has been head of our Q Branch at Salisbury, to succeed General

Lotbiniere, who has been Chief Engineer of the 1st Anzac Corps

since it started in Egypt. This is a proper reform. Although

Lotbiniere is exceedingly well loved by the whole of the staff,

there is no doubt that the post could be perfectly well filled by

an Australian, and itis hight time that all positions in the A.I.F.

which can be filled by Australian officers, should be so filled.

We are making a number of temporary exchanges with British Staffs

of Junior Staff Officers, but the principle, and the right principle,

in dealing with Australian troops, is that a senior appointment

should be kept in the hands of Australians. If a position can be

found on a British Staff for General Carruthers, either Brand or

Gellibrand would be called in to take his place. Birdwood never

seems to me to be very keen on Gellibrand, so I daresay that it

might be Brand who would be chosen. In any case, oneof the two

ought certainly to have this position, although Gellibrand would be

the far more capable. He is a man who understands the characters

of other men more completely than any officer than I know. He goes

about quietly amongst whatever units are under his charge, getting

to know the officers in and out of himself, and both on and apart

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from duty, and sorting out his knowledge of their character

and their estimates of their subordinates, until he has accumulated
a knowledge of the personnel which is working under him

that is far more intimate than that of any other officer in our

Corps. For that reason, he is magnificent in and Adjutant General's

(A) work. Indeed, his recommendations, so Coleman tells me, are

taken by General Birdwood without question in a way in which those

of nobody else would be.

General Carruthers, who is a gentleman in the very best sense of

the word, from the crown of his curly old head to his finger tips.

is not a first rate Staff Officer, and neverhas been. Heis too

nervous in his decisions, and perhaps, too kindly and gently

inclined. He is the best rider, so Smith says,-and he ought to 

know - in the whole of our Staff, better even than Birdwood and

White. He has a soft heart for all defects and deficiencies and

one of the kindliest and most generous natures; but itis not

really fair to the men and officers throughout the Corps to keep

over them a senior officer who is not the best available, and

that certainly Carruthers is not. I don't think that for a moment

he would claim it for himself. General Birdwood, however, will

not change him until he is assured that he will get a position

somewhere else that is equivalent to the one which he holds at

present. Birdwood is absolutely firm in this matter in standing

by his oldfriends. The result is that neither Colonel Manifold

nor General Carruthers, the heads of the Medical A & Q Branches oft

the Corps Staff are likely to leave the Corps, and the work of the

Staff undoubtedly suffers.

Our Flying Corps is making a great name for itself. The 69th

Squadron, which is now taking photographs for the Australian

Corps, is taking the best photographs along the whole front, so

Coleman tells me, andhe has friends in the Squadron. These old

machines (R.E.8s) have been used by them for fighting the enemy,

and several times they have "downed" the German scouting aeroplanes.
There has recently been a German who has every morning

been flying low down over the infantry, annoying them greatly with

his machine gun fire. This chap came over at the same time day

after day, flying very low. Our Infantry complained and one

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morning our observation machines waited for him. Five of them

suddenly appeared and pounced upon him while he was at his

work. They brought him down wounded. He turned out to be a

German baron and is now in hospital. He was a good sportsman

at any rate. Instructions were recently issued to these this

Observations  Squadron that they were not to do any more fightingM

Prevocus to this report had been issued every week or month

containing the number of rounds  fired by each squadron and a
number of comparisons made, in order to pit the squadrons against

one another in a competitive spirit. Our squadron has been

consistently heading them inn more than one branch of the work,

and when the order came out against fighting, so they say, protested,

and asked for special leave to continue its fighting. 

The result was that this order was cancelled, and in the last

summary, the Australian Observation Squadron headed the list with

15,000 rounds fired, the next Squadron had fired 5,000. Of course

these details/come from the Squadron itself and I get them second

hand: they need verification, but there must be something in

them.

Coleman tells me that on one occasion lately, the Army had

been asking for some photographs to be taken of certain positions

some distance behind the German lines, which were in the area of

the Army Squadron to photograph. Our Squadron, being a Corps

Squadron, di nothave to go so far inland. However, when the

photographs taken by the Army Squadron were received, they were

not satisfactory, and the Army asked our Corps if they wouldsend

out some machines to take these photographs. The Australian 

Squadron agreed, and two machines went out, accompanied by five

scouts. The scouts flew high and the photographing machines 

flew low. When they got well over the German lines, they were 

met with a terrific fire from the German "Archies".  So hot did

this grow, that the five scouting machines in the protecting

patrol hauled off and retired homewarrs andreported that the

bombardment made itimpossible to continue this work. The two

old photographing planes, flying at a height of 8000 feet, went

on until their work was finished in spite of the bombardment,

and came home with the photographs.

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This story again, may contain some exaggeration, but at least

it must have been a very fine performance. It is not a bit

more surprising than many things done by our fellows in the war.

FEBRUARY 23

To-day has been one of the most interesting mornings

that I have ever had on the front. I have described it in a separate 

note on my visit to the 3rd Tunnellers and their wonderful diggings

at Hulluch.

A Canadian Divisional General McDonald ^(Major Gen ACMacDonnell) commanding, I think the
First Canadian Division, came with us, or rather, I was taken

round with him, by Sanderson. He was a splendid old chap, Scotsman

by origin, who had been an officer in the North West Mounted Police

for goodness knows how many years; full of humour and with an

intense pride in his Scotch connections. He would be just the

right sort of officer to command Australians.

The Canadian Colonel who came round with him, told me that the

report that the Canadians were going to form a second corps is

wrong. He said that the question hadbeen considered, but that

General Currie had decided that it was better to have one strong 

corps rather than two weak ones. It had further been decided to

break up the 5th Canadian Division in order that there might be

bigger reinforcements for the 4th and others; it had also been

decided not to reduce the Brigades to three battalions, as the

British are doing, but to keep them all up to the full four battalion

strength. The idea is to make the Corps as effective as

possible.in any fighting that it enters upon and to economise in

officers and staff and all the appenages of an Army Corps. 

The General asked me "What sort of a man is this Birdwood?

You know I have nothing against him except what he said to the

press. I think the Australians are very fine people, and I admire

your troops very much, and when General Birdwood claims their

virtues for them, I agree with him entirely. But there is just

one point I have up against him", he said. "I read in the newspapers

that somebody called Birdwood had said that you can take

your meal off the Australian trenches, -- they were so clean. that

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he would not mind taking his dinner off them. Now, whatever

else may be claimed for your Anzacs" he said, "that is just the

one point on which I would pick a quarrel with him. We relieved

the Australians once and my officers used to come to me

and tell me of what they found in their billets, and when I read

this in the newspaper next day, I said to myself 'who is this man

Birdwood? That is not my opinion,anyhow." Birdwood, if I

remember alright, was speakingof the Gallipoli trenches which were

very clean indeed. But indeed, every body of troops always grumbles

at the condition in which the billets and trenches are left by their

predecessors. The only time I ever knew troops satisfied was when

we relieved the 15th (Scottish) Division on the Somme.

Sanderson told me that the information which they had about the

Germans was that they were piling up troops behind Lens and behind

Cambrai. The troops were too far away for it to be possible to say

where they were going to be used, but it was said they were being

trained in open warfare, which looked as if the Germans were meditating

and attempt to break through: but there was nothing to

indicate at the present moment where. One point of interest is

that the Germans are said to intend getting through as far as our

guns in the first attack when they make it.

I heard also, from Lawson, of the Engineers at Corps Headquarters,

that he had been visiting some of the British yards during his leave.

and that the submarine problem is being tackled by the use of

howitzers on board our destroyers and other ships. These are only

half provided at present, but as time goes on, they willbe supplied

to almost all ships. The Howitzer requires fires a shell which contains

a depth charge - that is to say, one that explodes at some distance

under the surface. A great deal is to be hoped fre for from this

method, but of course, in time, when the Germans understand it

fully, they will no doubt lengthen the range of their torpedoes,

or attack take other methods to fight against it. The destruction

of German submarines however, is now said to be one in every four

that puts to sea for a voyage - that is to say that when a submarine

sails she has only one chance in four of returning from that voyage.

I came again to the hospitable Correspondents' Headquarters for

the night. 

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FEBRUARY 24

This morning Lytton took me along to General Cox, the

new Brigadier-General of the Intelligence on General Headquarters.

who has replaced Charteris. We were going to put to Cox my urgent

plea that the War Office should not destroy the photograph of our

stretcher-bearers working under the white flag at Pozieres, which

General Charteris had given orders should be done. The person who

really gave these orders, I understand, is Colonel Church, but

General Charteris, I believe, upheld him. This has always seemed to

me a foolish and dishonest proposal, altogether unworthy of thec

clean British methods of fighting the enemy, After all, there

was nothing wrong in what our stretcher-bearers were doing. On

the contrary, itis an observation of the Geneva Convention in

the spirit, although not in the letter. Lytton, like the broadminded

censor that he is, has always supported me to the hilt in

this request, but has so far, been ruled down by these people at

G.H.Q. He tells me, however, that Cox is a fine type of man, a

sportsman and a gentleman to his finger tips, of a very much higher

class than old Charteris. I motored with him to Montreuil and

there at midday we found Cox. He is quite a youngster, with a very

direct, pleasant manner, and a fine, clean, clear-eyed, youthful face.

I do not know that it was the face of a man with great imagination

but it was the face o a straight, good high-minded young soldier,

and I was altogether taken with him. He grasped the point about the

photograph very quickly, and decided at once that as this was a matter

involving a Convention between ourselves and foreign countries, it

must be referred to the General Staff Intelligence at the War Office. 

But he would forward the photograph on with a strong recommendation

that it should be kept for us until after the war, and not destroyed, 

as previously ordered. I do not much like the matter being referred

to the War Office where these points cannot be put forward in its

favour, but after all Lytton has done for us, I had to leave it at

that.

I came to Boulogne while Lytton returned to Rollencourt. I

just caught the boat and reached London in time for dinner.

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Before leaving Corps Headquarters, I had spoken to White about

a proposal that I had for the American correspondents to be asked

up to our front. It seems to me that after this was we shall need

the sympathy of America in the Pacific to the fullest extent to which

it is possible to obtain it. It looks as if the war may end in a

League of Nations - a sort of superior parliament or council

in which international questions will have to be discussed and decided,

before there is any resort to ware war, so that any nation that

decides not to abide by the council's decision, will run the risk

of having the whole of the rest of the nations against it in the

fight. Now, if the question of our relations with the Asiatic Races,

which we intend to keep out of Australia, has to be decided/in this

way, it almost looks as though in winning the War and establishing

our League of Nations, we raised up a most deadly peril for ourselves -

For we put it into the hands of a council of ambassadors, who may 

not have the least sympathy or understanding, to decide that we must

admit the Oriental Races into our country. The only people who must

necessarily take our side when any such qquestion arises, are the 

white English speaking nations around the Pacific, namely, the Western

States, Canadan, New Zealand, and to some extent, South Africa.

The nations United States, which is bound to have the most powerful 

 voice in the decision of these matters, is also bound to see things

in our way on account of the position of her own Western States.

Therefore, in this essential problem, we and they must necessarily

be found on the same side. It is therefore obvious that the result

of this war will be to throw our interests and those of America

more and more closely together. At the same time, itis just possible

that the threat the sea-power owing to the introduction of the
submarine, may cause the British protection to be less strong and less

valuable than it was before the war. At any rate, our interest is

perfectly clear and obvious, and so is Canada's. It is draw the

British nation and the American people together by every means in

our power, and if an English-speaking Federation is the outcome of it,

bound by loose ties, representing only their own interests, this 

would most probably be the most satisfying solution for us in this

war. It is, however, urgent for us to obtain the interest and sympathy

of America, which at the present moment knows very little about

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us. I suggest to White that the American correspondents should

be asked up to our Corps , in order that they might see how extraordinarily

similar our men are to their own. I am sure that this

fact would go straight home to them at once, and that they would

feel amongst our men as though they were amongst their own people.

White agreed to do what he could to help this. I mentioned it to

Lytton and he said that he also agreed, subject only to this --

That the American correspondents should, at the same time, have the

opportunity of seeing the British units, as the tendency in America

was to fall into the error that Great Britain was making her colonies

undertake the roughest part of her fighting in this war -- which is

not the case, but which is a view which the Germans and Irish in

America have seriously fostered, Cox agreed to this visit also.

FEBRUARY 25th

My eyes have been giving me a good deal of trouble lately,

the left eye having become more short-sighted. I shall have

to get my glasses altered, as this is hampering one's work a great

deal at present. 

I forgot to say that I was up to see Battersbyee at the Colonial

Office the other day. He asked me if I would like to meet Walter

Long, the present Colonial Secretary, and arranged for me to call

and see him the same evening, which I did. I found him in one of

those big rooms with a small desk, like an altar, near one end of it,

in which Cabinet Ministers and permanent Under-Secretaries are

generally to be found. I suppose the rooms have to be big in order

to accommodate a deputation if necessary. He is a small man with a

very bald head, and a small light moustache - rather like John Holmes

in appearance, although he does not strike one as being by any means

so genial or so breezy as our John. He sat with his chin well down

in his collars, and started off by asking me two or three very direct

questions about some letter that Murdoch had sent to Australia, indicating

clearly that Murdoch thought that Birdwood ought no longer

to be the General Officer Commanding of the Australian Imperial Force

at the same time as he was the active Commander of the troops in the

field. Of course, this has been a vexed question inside the Force