Item 01: Eric Susman war diary, 1 January 1915-4 April 1916 - Page 113
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[Page 113]
Tuesday 30 March 1915
Mine being the company for duty, I was not on parade to-day. So I was told off to report to the Regimental office as orderly. It is just this kind of job, that occasionally brings you into touch with the purely administrative part of the battalion. Of one thing I am absolutely certain, for an active service campaign, military red tape is scandalously allowed to reign supreme. This was the one single impression that the day's work left on my mind.
During the day, I delivered a whole host of divers papers to various officers. And I generally made it my business to find out as much as I could of the contents of each packet. Being chumy with the Orderly room Sargeant, this was not a difficult task. And the result of my investigations was something as follows. From big batches of Court Martial papers to faked Parade States (heavy penalty on active service), from War Diaries to tentative Embarkation States, everything is a huge farce. Both parties know & shortly will know the gist of the information contained in the important looking official blue envelopes, without the necessity of useless correspondence. Meanwhile, huge stationery bills and overworked clerks are the only appreciable or noticeable result of that mighty ruler – Red Tape!