306 



THE NATIONAL 



GEOGRAPHIC 



MAGAZINE 



We are a practical people, and yet a 

 sentimental strain runs through us. We 

 have- always a soft spot, and especially 

 for those who help us or do us a good 

 turn. Did you ever hear of the Cana- 

 dian soldier who hailed from one of our 

 Scotch settlements? In the course of an 

 attack Sandy was rushing forward, rifle 

 and bayonet at the charge, when sud- 

 denly he was attacked viciously by one 

 of his smallest enemies, who was also 

 nearest at hand. He felt that he could 

 not do justice to the enemy in the dis- 

 tance unless he first disposed of the 

 enemy in his midst. So he paused, put 

 his rifle in the hook of his elbow, and 

 made a vigorous home attack. 



He was successful. But just as he 

 caught his tormentor a German shell 

 burst in front of him, in the very spot 

 where he would have been had he not 

 paused. Sandy held the little thing be- 

 fore him, and as he looked at it he said: 

 "Weel, ma wee mon, I canna give ye the 

 iron cross ; I canna give ye the Victoria 

 Cross, but ye hae saved ma life. I must 

 reward ye somehow. I'll just put ye 

 back where ye belong." And back he 

 went. 



TAKING A MAN'S PART IN THE GREAT 

 STRUGGLE 



For years before the war broke out, 

 many of us knew of Germany's ambi- 

 tions to rule the world, and feared that 

 this struggle was coming. The question 

 had to be settled whether Anglo-Saxon 

 ideals of freedom and democracy were 

 to prevail or the world was to be Ger- 

 manized and ruled by the Kaiser. 



When the future of humanity was at 

 stake, we wanted to have some influence 

 in the decision, and we were thankful 

 that, as part of the British Empire, we 

 were at war and privileged to take a 

 man's part in this great world struggle, 

 the greatest crisis that has come in the 

 history of humanity for over a thousand 

 years. 



There was no compulsion on us. The 

 Germans expected us to stay out, and 

 simply could not understand our going 

 in. At first we were influenced by pa- 

 triotic and humanitarian reasons which 

 we felt in a general way. But our boys 

 soon came in contact with German bru- 



tality in a concrete way and our feelings 

 became vastly deeper and more intense. 



For instance, Lieutenant Holt, of Win- 

 nipeg, returned on leave of absence and 

 brought with him as a souvenir a little 

 doll. In one of those early days his regi- 

 ment was forced back by the enemy 

 through a Belgian village. He stopped 

 at a small house to ask directions, and a 

 little girl of about seven years ran out 

 and gave him her dolly. She said, "Please 

 take my dolly to a safe place." To please 

 her he took it. Next day our men re- 

 took the village and he at once went to 

 the cottage to see how the child had fared. 

 He found her — lying across the thresh- 

 old, dead — killed by a German bayonet. 

 Lieutenant Holt brought back that dolly 

 to a safe place in Canada, but your boys 

 and our boys are now fighting that the 

 whole world may be made a safe place 

 for little mothers like that. 



King's Staff-Sergeant James W. Smith, 

 who has returned with his right arm 

 shattered and shortened and the hand 

 little better than a deformed claw, who was 

 foreman in the W. C. White boiler works 

 of Montreal and is now superintendent 

 in a munition factory, told me personally 

 that he had himself assisted in taking 

 down some Canadian soldiers who had 

 been crucified by the Germans nailing them 

 to a barn door. Do you wonder that our 

 Canadian boys were very demons in fe- 

 rocity when next they attacked ? 



NO SEEEISH CONTEST 



It is no selfish struggle in which we 

 are engaged. Like you of the United 

 States, we have nothing to gain. We 

 seek no territory, no indemnity, no ad- 

 vantage. But, like you, we are glad and 

 proud to be in, and glad and proud to 

 have been of any service. 



This is the brief story of some of the 

 things that have been done. But after 

 all, those things belong to the past ; they 

 are written in history and are now mere 

 records and memories. Nothing that we 

 can now do can change them, and the 

 future, which we have the power to 

 change, is therefore more interesting and 

 more important. In our outlook on the 

 future we are now, thank God, united as 

 Allies — Allies who are working together 

 with heart and soul. 



