ATROCITIES IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 9

ATROCITIES IN WAR

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AUSTRALIANS STORIES IN ROBERT GRAVES’S BOOK “GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT” (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) London, December 26. Were the Australians guilty of atrocities against their prisoners in the Great War? is a question brought to the front owing to statements by the IrishGerman poet Robert Graves, in I a brilliantly written autobiography, “Good-bye to All That.” Dealing sensationally with the war, in which Graves fought most gallantly on the British side, and was so badly wounded that he was reported dead, this book, published last month, was immediately criticised by the “Daily Mail” as painful and provocative. Graves’s words suggest that France and Britain plotted and prepared for war, and he adds that there was neither patriotism nor religion in the trenches. He declares that if the chaplains had shown one-tenth of the courage and endurance of the doctors in the British Expeditionary Force, they might have started a religious revival. Mr. Graves states that many officers having two years’ service in the trenches became dipsomaniacs. Some even worked up to two bottles of whisky a day. He comments on numerous suicides, and adds that executions were frequent, including two privates, who confessed they shot a company sergeant-major instead of a platoon sergeant whom they hated. The French Military Governor at Bethune at the execution delivered a speech eulogising how gloriously the British could die. The book also contains many instances of amazing British gallantry, but as a foil to these instances are quoted alleged atrocities by Australian and Canadian soldiers, who, Graves asserts, had the worst reputations for violence against prisoners. Mr. Jonathan Cape, the publisher, now denies reports from Australia that the book had been recalled owing to the paragraph alleging Australian atrocities. The publisher says that he has had no complaints from Australia, and the book is selling freely in England. It is now added that Graves’s paragraph referring to the “worst reputation,” added: “The only thing to be said was they were only two generations removed from the days of Ralph Rashleigh and Marcus Clarke,” who wrote of convict times. He could not decide how far this reputation was due to the overseas habit of brhgging and legpulling. Graves relates a first-hand account of an incident at Morlandcourt, where Australians took prisoners a dozen Germans in a cellar. The Australians, the writer says, made the prisoners turn out their pockets and return to the cellar, and then threw half a dozen Mills bombs in among them. The author’s reflection on Scottish troops aroused violent protests, and writing in the “Daily Mail” about the alleged retreat of Scottish battalions from High Wood, Graves says that he merely recorded what he had been told. He now finds it untrue, and apologises for reporting a libel. RIDICULOUS AND IMPOSSIBLE PRISONERS TREATED LENIENTLY COMMENT OF AUSTRALIAN OFFICERS Melbourne, December 27. Interviewed regarding Graves’s aspersions on Australian troops cabled from London, General Sir John Monash characterised the statements as ridiculous and impossible. The writer had evidently no idea what he was talking about. German prisoners captured by Australians were handed over immediately to the military police, who escorted them to the corps cages, where they were handed over to the intelligence officer. Brigadiei’-General Lloyd described the story as absolute rot. The Australians treated their prisoners too leniently. “I have seen,” he said, “Germans scrambling past men of other divisions to be taken prisoner by the Australians.” Brigadiers McKay and Heane ridicule Graves’s allegations. ASTONISHINGLY FRANK BOOK . SOME REFERENCES TO AUSTRALIANS “Good-bye to All That,” an autobiography by Robert Graves, published in London last month by Jonathan Cape, is an astonishingly frank book, that will arouse controversy and criticism in quarters other than that, mentioned in the cable message. Copies of the book received in Wellington show that it does not belie the cabled statements about it when it appeared in London. As was mentioned at that time, many of the stories told by Graves of his experiences in English preparatory schools, at Charterhouse School and as an officer of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in France from 1915 to 1918 are unprintable in the average newspaper. Graves has many hard and brutal things to say about the English Public School system and. he relates appalling stories of happenings in war-time in France and Flanders in the most matter-of-fact way. Regarding the matters mentioned in today’s cable message, it must be said that Graves makes it tolerably clear that his stories about the killing of prisoners were in the main current gossip amongst soll'1<“In the instructors’ mess (at the Havre ‘Bull Ring’) the chief subjects of conversation besides local and technical talk were morale, the reliability of various divisions in battle, the value of different training methods, and war-morality, with particular reference to atrocities. . . . “Atrocities. - Propaganda reports of atrocities were, we agreed, ridiculous. . As for atrocities against soldiers, the difficulty was to know where to draw the line. . . For true atrocities, that is, personal rather than miitary violations of the code of war, there were few opportunities. The most obvious opportunity was in the interval between suirender of prisoners and their arrival (or non-arrival) at headquarters. And it was an opportunity of which advantage was only too often taken. Nearly every instructor in the mess knew of specific cases when prisoners had been murdered on the way back. The commonest motives were, it seems, revenge for the death of friends or relations, jealousy of

the prisoners’ pleasant trip to a comfortable prison camp in England, military enthusiasm, fear of being suddenly overpowered by the prisoners, or, more simply, not wanting to be bothered with the escorting job. In any of these cases the conductors would report on arrival at headquarters that a German shell had killed the prisoners; no questions would be asked. ... . “The troops that had the worst reputation for acts of violence against prisoners were the Canadians (and later the Australians). With the Canadians the motive was said to be revenge for a Canadian found crucified with bayonets through his hands and feet in a German trench. This atrocity was never substantiated, nor did we believe the story freely circulated that the Canadians crucified a German officer in revenge shortly afterwards. , “Of the Australians the only thing to be said was that they were only two generations removed from the days of Ralph Rashleigh and Marcus Clark. “How far this reputation for atrocities was deserved and how far it was due to the overseas habit of bragging and leg-pulling we could not decide. We only knew that to have committed atrocities against prisoners was, among the overseas men, and even among some British troops, a boast, not a confession.

Graves then gives examples of atrocities claimed by a Canadian-Scot and an Australian as having been committed by them when they killed their prisoners with Mills’ bombs. He also throws in the story of the Algerian who.,when promised by a headquarters cook who had been in the habit of giving him a tin of jam occasionally, that he could have his usual gift if he brought in the head of a “Fritz.” duly went out and got Ins head and received his pot of jam when he delivered the goods.