. BACK ON CANADIAN SOIL 



No fighting men of the world war have shown finer stamina than the boys of our neigh- 

 bor nation, the Dominion. Their recent heroic offensive which wrested the supposedly 

 impregnable Vimy Ridge from the Germans was only one of a long series of brilliant achieve- 

 ments. Whenever their condition permits, the wounded Canadians are brought home to 

 recuperate, as in the case of this Dominion soldier, who is being tenderly nursed back to 

 health at the Spadina Military Hospital, Toronto. 



You will want accommodation for offi- 

 cers or men sent over to England from 

 time to time for the regulation periods 

 of leave. 



I feel I could go on forever suggesting 

 to you ways and means for the expendi- 

 ture of all the money that you can collect 

 in June and go on collecting afterward; 

 but the time at my disposal, to say noth- 

 ing of your patience, is exhausted, and I 

 must close. 



But I close with these words : We count 

 confidently upon you to rouse, and it 

 should not be difficult, the deep-seated 

 spirit of humanity that permeates this 

 Northern Continent of America — to 

 rouse that soul of your people to translate 

 itself into terms of hard cash ; as an ear- 

 nest that those who cannot fight will pay, 



and that, if it be the will of God that 

 wars shall continue in this imperfect 

 world, then you are determined to relieve 

 and mitigate its horrors for its victims 

 to the utmost of your power. 



And may I add that if, in any way 

 whatever, you care to ask the British Red 

 Cross for the benefit of its experience in 

 any quarter of the world during the tragic 

 period through which we have passed, I 

 am authorized to say that it will be 

 promptly and gladly given ; no longer to 

 our "cousins," as we used affectionately 

 to call you, but to our brothers and sisters 

 united by a thousand ties, but none closer 

 than that of an overmastering passion to 

 join hands in drawing a great net of 

 mercy through an ocean of unspeakable 

 pain. 



431 



