AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR.

CAPTAIN BEAN'S HISTORY. Another volume of the official history of the Australian Force in the Great War has appeared, and more have yet to bo published because this one brings the Australian share of tho campaign in France only to the end of 1916. It is typical of Captain C. E W. Bean's former work—painstaking and detailed to a degree, and, therefore, not to be judged by the Masefield standard. Captain Bean has a definite purpose in the laborious method he has adopted In the preface ho states that colonial historians have been taxed with a tendency to garnish their works with more detail than writers in older countries. He admits that this is probably true of the Australian official history which would appear to be the task of half a lifetime. But " definite reasons " can bo " easily furnished." First, there is the limited field enabling these books to be written mainly by eye-witnesses, and thus it is possible to reconstruct tho fighting from the point of view of the front line and to record with more than usual certainty the lay of strains and stresses at the actual point where battles are won or lost. A Study of Peoples. Unexpectedly we find that tho primary purpose of it all is to show how a people responds to the heaviest of all tests, what strain it will resist, when it will bend or break, how it compares in these respects with others, and what are the elements and signs of its strength and weakness.

"It also seems desirable," proceeds Captain Bean, " to provide the evidence which may perhaps some day help students to probe for the causes. In war men exhibit in the sight of all, often a dozen times in a day, feelings and tendencies which might not be visible to their fellows once in an ordinary lifetime. Their allies beside them, and the enemy whom they face, are subject to similar stress, and from the millions of resulting incidents there may be gleaned data for a comparative test of extraordinary interest and value."

Between these lines may be discerned the growing national spirit of Australia and an intense, if not an exaggerated desire, to portray the Australian character. But it is not for the people of any other British country to criticise this aim. it is solely Australia's business and if Australia, far more than any other Dominion, desires a war history into which not only historical fact, but the soul of the nation is written, that also will be of interest to future students of an even wider history than that of the Great War. New Zealand's official war history is very modest.in scope by comparison even after full allowance is made for the minor share taken by her much smaller forces, but on this side of the Tasman there is no desire to do more than has been done. There is no fear that the future will be unable to read in them, long after the interest in the issues of individual battles has vanished, the spirit of her people and the true character of her fighting men. It should not be forgotten that not only in the histories of the various Dominion forces, but also in the vast library of war literature, the s[ (it of the young nations has been crystallised. The very fact that the quality and volume of the forces of the outer Empire brought surprise to the traditional mind of England, particularly the military mind, produced an immenso amount of enduring record and comment which should leave no room for doubt as to the mind and heart and soul of the younger nations during the period of the Great War. Faults of Despatches. Captain Bean has a second reason for recording the Australian share in the war with such wealth of detail. From personal observation he believes that despatches written after a fight are rarely accurate in detail. " Movements which a leader believes to have been the result of his orders have often been made before those orders arrived,- their true cause having been accident, the pressure of the enemy, the initiative of some junior officer, or even the tactical sense of the troops themselves. Probably the colonial writer," ho continues, " regards more sceptically than those of older countries, the despatches both of statesmen and generals. He is also* perhaps, less likely to be influenced by the assumption—necessary in military operations, but in no degree binding on their historian —that for a commander's decisions the commander alone is responsible. " The colonial historian, convinced that the truo credit for famous r.chievements in war, as in politics, lies often with unknown subordinates, endeavours to sift the details until lie can lay a just share of praise at the feet of those to whom it is due. In the compilation of the present volume this purpose has been deliberately kept in view. Only by this method have there, for example, been brought to light the desperate fighting on the beleaguered right flank of Fromelles and the critical situation (solved by the boldness of one young leader) in the final attack on Pozieres Ridge—events about which the official operation reports were silent, simply because the higher leaders had never heard of them. No blamo whatever is imputed for this omission; the higher authorities had duties far more pressing than that of delving into history. But, a history of tlioso battles, based merely—or mainly—on the official reports would have been a travesty of (lie truth." Justice to the Ranks. All except those who might disagree with the details given of small but important corners of a battle, will applaud theso sentiments. The " ranks " vrill see in them a desire to do full justice to the subordinate officer to the non-commis-sioned officer and to the private. Too rarely is a history written from other than the standpoint of high command or the critic of tactics and strategy. Often the fighting ranker feels tha. 1 - ho is regarded through the whole thing, not as a human soul striving against overwhelming stress, but as a very small pawn in the game. Captain Bean sees the war through human eves. His pages are sprinkled with the names of private soldiers who, at a critical instant, did 'something brave and important, and what is more, a footnote gives a precis of what " Records ' has about each individual mentioned More than any other history excepting regimental histories, this one endeavours to allot full credit where credit is due down to the youngest " digger."