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An example of censorship

REFERENCE
Bean's censored despatch on the torpedoing of the Southland
Australian War Memorial, censored press cable 11 September 1915. AWM38 3DRL 8039 Item 7.

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These documents are an example of the effect of military censorship on the despatches sent by press correspondents from Gallipoli. Unlike some, the censor at Gallipoli, Captain William Maxwell, often did not simply edit out sections of a report, but sent the report back to its writer with advice on how to rewrite it in accordance with censorship guidelines. The example here is of C.E.W Bean's September article on the torpedoing of the ship, the Southland, which was returned by the censor. Bean's revision was passed by the censor and published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. While the facts do not vary significantly between the articles, Bean's approach has obviously changed, and he has created a different mood in his revision.

Bean's first attempt at writing an account of the attack on the Southland includes much greater detail of the events surrounding the incident than his later account, although the first draft would itself have been subject to Bean's own restraint. Bean took a cautious attitude to censorship regulations and tried to keep his writing within them. His second draft focuses almost exclusively on the death of General Linton, but rather than engendering depression because of this focus on death, the second despatch makes Linton's death seem more reasonable and heroic than the first. In Bean's uncensored article there is no reason given for Linton's death, aside from the fact that he was caught underneath an upturned boat. In the rewritten article Bean explains that Linton was a 'strong swimmer' seen to be 'swimming well', and that he told his rescuers to 'save the others first'. The added details put a more positive light on the tragedy, as Linton appears to have chosen his own fate in a heroic act to allow others to be saved.

Linton's last words, 'Good luck boys', did not make the censored edition of the despatch and instead were replaced by the General's brave exhortation to allow others to be saved before him. Bean's points in the first draft-that the men involved in the disaster waited almost three hours for the hospital ship and that around 15 men were drowned due to this incident-were likewise deleted. Not that Bean's first article was negative in tone. Although he reports that it was almost three hours before the hospital ship arrived at the scene, he also points out that the ship arrived 'stoking furiously' and 'adding two knots to her highest speed'. He adds that once on board the ship all those rescued 'received cigarettes [and] every comfort [the] ship could give them'. And while he acknowledges the loss of life from the incident in the first article, Bean says it was not a disaster, but a situation that could have developed into one without the 'steadiness' of the men involved.

REFERENCE
Bean's despatch on the morale of Australian soldiers at Gallipoli, dated 22 June 1915
Sydney-Mail, 30 June 1915, p. 28, NLA newspaper call number NX 182
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According to historian Kevin Fewster, the story on the Southland was held up again when it reached Australia. The Southland had been carrying more than 50 officers and more than 1000 soldiers. Australian authorities considered that revelation of the torpedoing and loss of life would harm home-front morale. As letters referring to the tragedy began to arrive home from the Dardanelles, rumours on the extent of loss flourished and officials realised that suppressing news of the incident was encouraging exaggerated accounts of what had occurred. Nine weeks after Bean had cabled news of the incident home, Australian authorities released his truncated report.

Forbidden by censorship to expose the more graphic details of war, all Australian correspondents at Gallipoli sought to include lighter, more human aspects of the reactions of soldiers in the face of overwhelming horror. Bean often included stories of wounded men in his reports but always with a mention of the injured soldier's bravery or his good humour. An example is his anecdote of a wounded man who, although he had just lost a leg and part of an arm to a shell, 'was not killed and discussed cheerfully how he would get a living in Australia afterwards selling newspapers'. Such stories are in sharp contrast to the typically tragic ones found in many of Bean's diary entries, which were not subject to the censor.

REFERENCE
Charles Smith's article 'Incidents of Battle . . . Remarkable Escapes' dated 5 July 1915
The Argus, 30 July 1915, p. 5, NLA newspaper call no. NX 11
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Charles Smith's articles also show this tendency to develop a positive 'spin' on the war. In an article Smith wrote from Alexandria, he explains that there had been a plethora of incidents at Gallipoli showing 'how near soldiers in battle may approach the edge of death and yet, by some kind of chance, miss falling down the precipice into eternity'. Smith gives one (unsubstantiated) example he believed noteworthy, of a captain who refused to seek cover while under fire, and, trying to light a cigar instead, first had his light blown out by a bullet, and then had the matchbox (and one of his fingers) shot out of his hands while the cigar was shot from his mouth. It was only then that the captain sought the cover of the trench with the rest of his men. The article does not disclose or give an indication of the large numbers of soldiers who did 'fall down the precipice'.