In Your Hands, Australians is a small book about post-war reconstruction in which Australia’s Official World War 1 Correspondent, C.E.W. Bean exhorted Australians to pursue the aims of peace with the dedication, organisation and tenacity with which they had fought what was then known as the Great War.Stephen Ellis, 'CEW Bean, A study of his life and works', M.A. Thesis University of New England (1969), p 15.
Author Charles Bean was a noted journalist, special correspondent, leader-writer with the Sydney Morning Herald and published author before his appointment in 1914 as Australia’s Official World War 1 Correspondent.Geoff Lindsay SC, ‘Be Substantially Great In Thy Self: Getting to Know C.E.W. Bean; Barrister, Judge's Associate, Moral Philosopher (2011). https://www.forbessociety.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bean.pdf; https://www.forbessociety.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/b10.pdf Stephen Ellis, 'CEW Bean, A study of his life and works', M.A. Thesis University of New England (1969) p.22 Bean was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Society of Arts 1913, p. 31.‘Captain Charles Edwin Woodrow (C E W) Bean’ https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P10676229; Charles Bean https://www.awm.gov.au/about/organisation/history/charles-beanPeter Burness, 'The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean', NewSouth, Sydney, (2018) p. 21.
As the Official War correspondent, Bean's works included an outpouring of dispatches, war reports cables, papers, correspondence, and records of interviews with the men of the AIF, and detailed entries in his more than 220 war time diaries.Michael Piggott, ‘A guide to The Personal Family and Official Papers of C. E. W. Bean, Australian War Memorial’, (1983).Robyn van Dyk, 'Historically significant diaries of C.E.W. Bean are now online'. https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/historically-significant-diaries-of-c-e-w-bean-are-now-online
During the war Bean wrote What to Know in Egypt A Guide for Australian Soldiers (Cairo 1915), and he was associated with three official publications: The Anzac Book (London 1916); From the Australian Front (London 1917) and the miniature newspaper, The Rising Sun.Michael Piggott, ‘A guide to The Personal Family and Official Papers of C. E. W. Bean, Australian War Memorial’, (1983), p.14. In 1917 he reworked and published a selection of his dispatches as a book entitled Letters from France, (London, 1917.)Stephen Ellis, 'CEW Bean, A study of his life and works', M.A. Thesis University of New England (1969) p. 31. Bean’s proceeds from his war-time books were donated to the A.I.F. rehabilitation and patriotic funds.Stephen Ellis, 'CEW Bean, A study of his life and works', M.A. Thesis University of New England (1969), p. 31
At the conclusion of the war, Bean left London in early January 1919 returning to Australia via Gallipoli where he led the Historical Mission which recorded and reported on the findings of the Mission’s on-site research of the 1915 campaign.Janda Gooding, (2009) Gallipoli Revisited: In the footsteps of Charles Bean and the Australian Historical Mission, Hardie Grant Books, Victoria
On arrival back in Australia in May 1919, Bean’s recommendation for the writing of an official history was accepted by the Australian Government. His aim with the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 was to create a perpetual memorial to the A.I.F and to ‘crystallise for all time’ the war's revelation of Australian character.Stephen Ellis, 'CEW Bean, A study of his life and works', M.A. Thesis University of New England (1969) p.197. Bean was animated by a guiding principle: that the history was to be a memorial to those who had served, suffered and died.Peter Stanley. Principal Historian AWM (1980–2007), ‘Charles Bean and the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, First World War Official Histories Introduction’. https://www.awm.gov.au/official-histories/introduction/first_world_war.
Bean’s recommendation for the establishment of a national war memorial that ‘for all time … [would] hold the sacred memories of the A.I.F.’ was also accepted.Aaron Pegram, Australian War Memorial. ‘Charles Bean’ https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/bean_charles On 11 November 1941, just before the final volume of the official history was published, Bean witnessed the opening of the Australian War Memorial.‘Charles Bean’ https://www.awm.gov.au/about/organisation/history/charles-bean
During his life Bean was active both in prose and person in a wide variety of civic and war-related works, causes and organisations. Most reflected his concern to improve Australian society and the welfare of its people. Others were linked with his wartime and pre-war occupations.Piggott, Michael (1983). A guide to The Personal Family and Official Papers of C. E. W. Bean. Australian War Memorial. He was a man who was full of ideas and opinions, and who had a vision for Australia.Burness, Peter (October 2018). "In his own words', speaking about The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean". Australian War Memorial.
The Book
Description and contents Written in October 1918, during the closing days of the war, Charles Bean called In Your Hands, Australians ‘the little Book on reconstruction’.Bean diary, entry 9 November 1918, AWM38, 3DRL 606/117/1, p. 70. It was first published in November 1918 shortly after its completion. It has been variously described as a ‘monograph’,C.E.W. Bean.’In Your Hands, Australians.’ https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/LIB41865, a ‘manifesto’,Ross Coulthart, ‘Charles Bean If people really knew.” Harper Collins Publishers, Sydney, 2014, p.370. a war-driven homily to young AustraliaJustice Geoff Lindsay, A Literary Event: The Launch of Bearing Witness (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015) by Peter Rees’ 2015, p.11 https://www.supremecourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Speeches/2015%20Speeches/lindsay_20150412.pdf and a secular sermon.Justice Geoff Lindsay, ‘Having a Voice: CEW Bean As a “Social Missionary’ ,2017 p.13. https://www.supremecourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Speeches/2017%20Speeches/Lindsay_20170420.pdf It bore the character of a personal letter to all Australians, urging the nation to embrace social improvement following the Great War.Justice Geoff Lindsay, ‘The Forgotten CEW Bean’, 2016, p.5 https://www.supremecourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Speeches/2016%20Speeches/Lindsay_20161110.pdf There is no particular literary quality in the book – nor would its author have claimed any.Dudley McCarthy, ‘Gallipoli to the Somme The Story of Charles Bean’, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW, (1983), p.356.
Out of the tragedy he was determined to see a new beginning for a nation that he believed had come of age and made its reputation in the family of nations.Peter Rees, ’Bearing Witness The remarkable life of Charles Bean, Australia’s greatest war correspondent’. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015. p. 383.
The design on the cover is a pictorial out-line of the book itself. In the foreground is a mound, a grave, with a steel helmet and a reversed rifle on it, indicating the work done by the A.I.F. for Australia; in the back-ground, the rising sun, telling of the rising hope of future achievements for the land under this emblem.‘Advocate Burnie Tasmania’, 12 September 1919 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66577715
In the Introduction to In Your Hands, Australians (dated November 1918) Bean explained the purpose of the book: ‘We have done with the Great War. We are facing peace. This small book has been written to help the men of the A.I.F. and the young people of Australia, in the trying period after the war, to fill their spare time with a thought or two of what we can all do for Australia in the long peace which many who will not return have helped to win. One does not need to enlarge upon Australia – that word alone means too much to us now to call for a single sentence of mine to expand it. But what we can do for her may at least be the theme for thousands of debating societies here [on the battlefields of Europe] and in Australia. If these few pages assist young Australians to think how they can help Australia themselves in any capacity, the purpose for which they were penned is more than served. Any author’s profit from this book is devoted to funds of the A.I.F.’C.E.W. Bean, ‘In Your Hands, Australians,’ Cassell and Company Ltd London, 1919
Bean had previously written in his war diary on 24 October 1918 that he wanted ‘to shoot in the idea of how the children of the country can take up the work of the AIF for Australia – make their country and not themselves their life’s work.’Bean diary, entry 24 October 1918, AWM38, 3DRL 606/117/1, p. 61. The tone of the whole book is set out in ‘Legacy,‘ the first chapter’s opening paragraph, in which Bean wrote of the great work of the A.I.F., and especially of those who made the supreme sacrifice as the legacy left to Australia.‘Advocate’ Burnie, Tasmania, 12 September 1919 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66577715 ‘They gave it into your hands, Australians, when the bullet took them. It lies in your hands now-you, the younger generation Australia; you, the men of the A.I.F., most of whom are still young Australians; even to the young Australians still at school. Australia lies in your hands now, where those men dying, laid her. This is not mere fancy-it is the simple, splendid truth. You have a much bigger task facing you than the A.I.F. in France and at Anzac had. It is the same great task really; but the A.I.F. only began it.’C.E.W. Bean, ‘In Your Hands, Australians,’ Cassell and Company Ltd London, 1919, p. 7. Later in this same chapter Bean also wrote: ‘It is the loss of those men, beyond all question, that is Australia’s loss in this war. The money. – the material – is nothing. With a trifling effort we can replace all that – if we did not we should scarcely miss it. But we can never bring back those 60,000 men.”C.E.W. Bean, ‘In Your Hands, Australians,’ Cassell and Company Ltd London, 1919, p.9
Altogether the Book contains 16 chapters entitled, respectively: (1) The Legacy; (2) Under Which Flag?; (3) The League of Nations; (4) The Towns; (5) On starting a Progress Association; (6) The Use of Brain; (7) Foreign Policy; (8) New Zealand, Britain, America and Canada; (9) Defence; (10) Population; (11) The Country District; (12) The Country Town; (13) The Great Cities; (14) Who can best make our city laws?; (15) The Laboratories that we need; and (16) Education.Justice Geoff Lindsay, ‘The Forgotten CEW Bean: A Thesis For Reflection : A Full Appreciation Of C.E.W. Bean must accommodate the “Social Missionary” as well as the War Correspondent’, 2016, p.5. https://www.supremecourt.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Speeches/2016%20Speeches/Lindsay_20161110_2.pdf
In these chapters Bean expressed in an Australian accent the hope which filled the minds of many good men at the end of 1918: that the world might now have a peace in which the lessons of war would be applied to building: in which the comradeship of armies would be preserved and widened in civil communities; in which the living performed deeds which somehow justified the years of death. The last and longest chapter was about education.K. S. Inglis, 'C.E.W. Bean, Australian Historian', The John Murtagh Macrossan Lecture, delivered at the University of Queensland, June 1969, published by UQP, (1970), p 19.