May 25, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
" to give us such valuable assistance, has touched us 
deeply. That resolve has been quickened into action 
in a marvellously short space of time, under the excellent 
organising and driving power of your Minister of Militia 
— my friend, Major-General Hughes." 
Early in December, one Canadian battalion, the 
" Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry," com- 
posed almost wholly of veteran soldiers, left the camp to 
join the 27th British Division. But it was not until the 
second week in February of last year that the First 
Canadian Division landed at St. Nazaire, and thus found 
itself at last in France. 
In this Division were two thousand descendants of the 
•Frenchmen who had left France in the 17th century. 
One company of the 14th Battalion was- entirely com- 
posed of French Canadians, speaking only the tongue of 
their ancestors, and as they marched through the French 
countryside, on their way to the front, the air rang with 
the old chansons, which, long since forgotten in the land 
of their origin, still lived in the New France overseas, 
from whence they came. " The population," wrote a 
French Canadian officer, " applauded us ; people ran 
to the doors of their houses and offered us fruit and wine ; 
at the stopping-places, French soldiers brought us coffee 
and rum ; joy and gaiety reigned everywhere, as we 
passed." It was an irresistible appeal to the historic 
imagination. 
Having taken over French trenches at the front, in the 
neighbourhood of Ypres, not many weeks elapsed before 
the Canadians received their baptism of fire. The 
" Princess Pats " was the first of the overseas battalions 
to be engaged in an action of real importance. This was 
at St. Eloi, and on March 20th their gallant commander, 
Colonel Farquhar, was killed. During the ensuing 
month the battahon covered itself and the name it bore 
with eternal glory. 
Second Battle of Ypres 
With the famous Second Battle of Ypres, the world is 
now familiar. In those three days, April 22nd, 23rd 
and 24th, 1915, the fame of the First Canadian Division 
spread throughout the world. The French line of trenches 
had been emptied by a pestilential and irresistible onrush 
of poisonous gas. The Canadians sprang into the breach, 
and were left to bear the brunt. Enormously out- 
numbered, they fought steadily two days and nights, 
knowing that upon their efforts depended the safety 
of the whole line which the enemy -was endeavouring to 
pierce. " The Canadians," reported Sir John French, 
" held their ground with a magnificent display of tenacity 
and courage ; and it is not too much to say that the 
bearing and conduct of these splendid troops averted a 
disaster which might have been attended with the most 
serious consequences." " Canada," said the Tinies, 
" saved Calais." 
Meanwhile Canada was not slackening her efforts. 
Another call for troops had gone forth, and another, and 
another. In May, just following the Second Battle of Ypres, 
which had stirred all Canada like flame, a second division 
set sail. In September, the month which saw a further 
important action at Loos, a third division left Canadian 
shores. At the present moment, a fourth division is in 
England, en route for the seat of war, and a fifth and 
sixth are forming. 
In March, 1916, it was announced by Sir Robert Borden 
that his Government was authorising the enrolment of 
500,000 men as Canada's contribution to the forces of the 
Empire. Of this number, nearly 350,000 are already 
under arms. 
Gradually Canada has built up, keeping pace with these 
active military developments, a great military organisa- 
tion, not only in the Dominion, but in this country. In 
London is Major-General J. W. Carson, C.B., and an 
administrative staff, constantly in touch with the War 
Office, with the Army Council and with the Imperial 
General Staff. Moreover, on the East Coast is a great 
reserve division, under Brigadier-General J. C. Macdougall, 
C.M.G., which is constantly drafting men to the depleted 
battalions in the firing line. The Representative of the 
Dominion Government at the front is Colonel Sir Max 
Aitken, M.P. There is a thoroughly-equipped medical 
service under General Carlton-Jones, and a staff of 
eminent surgeons, and scattered through the country are 
numerous Canadian hospitals and convalescent homes 
which minister to the needs of Canada's sick and wounded. 
The Canadian Pay and Record Offices in Westminster 
employ a thousand military clerks. Altogether Canada's 
war expenditure already approaches a million dollars a 
day. 
The War Machine 
Gradually the war machine of the Dominion has been 
approximated in character and discipline to the fighting 
forces of the Mother Country. The system throughout, 
even to its smallest details, is the same ; the uniform of 
the troops is the same ; such laxity as was apparent on 
the arrival of the first division has vanished, and there 
is now nothing in the appearance, deportment or morale of 
the men to distinguish them from any of the newly-raised 
British battalions, save that the physique of the Canadians 
is rather superior. The very term " battalion " is of 
recent introduction in Canada ; the unit was the regi- 
ment. At first, the Canadian battalions wore any 
distinguishing badges, the maple leaf and the brass 
shoulder-lettering being their only mark of individuality. 
But at an early stage it was thought wise to encourage the 
territorial system, and battalions came to be associated 
with the locaUties in which they were raised. Individual 
badges were devised and by degrees a battalion esprit 
de corps was fostered. 
It is perhaps invidious to single out any one of the 
scores of battalions which have seen active service, but 
Canadians will not soon forget the deeds of the gallant 
" Princess Pats," the i6th Battalion (Canadian Scottish), 
the 4th Battalion, the ist (Ontario) Battalion, the 3rd 
(Toronto), Battalion, the 7th Battalion (British Columbia 
Regiment), the 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of 
Canada), the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles). Of 
the gallant officers who have fallen the list is large, but 
the names of Birchall, Norsworthy, Merritt, Boyle, 
McHarg and Drummond are sure of a niche in our 
Temple of Fame. 
What the war has done in a military sense for Canada 
stands revealed. The series of scattered units, enrolled 
merely for local defence and intended in time of war to be 
auxiliary to an army raised by Great Britain, has 
vanished as such forever from the scene, emerging as a 
Canadian Army, which already in the crucible of war has 
adjusted itself into the machinery of a world- v/ide Im- 
perial military system. 
Australia's Part 
By Arthur Mason 
(London Correspondent of the " Sydney Morninl Herald ") 
IN days to come, 
when place and 
share and praise 
and honour shall 
have been measured 
through the juster 
perspective of his- 
tory, Australia's en- 
t husiasm of service 
and sacrifice in the 
cause of Empire will 
have its due portion 
of fame in the common 
fame of the Dominion 
peoples. That estimate 
of a future generation, 
the result of a more 
ilelicatc balancing of 
forces than is avail- 
able to us who are in 
the very midst of their clash and fire will, as it always 
does, consolidate our faiths and illumine our judgments. 
The material progress which had lifted Australia to 
national stature by gi:ace merely of a handful of population 
and a century of time, had been the ideal progress of a 
land that was always prosperous and always peaceful. 
The hint of war had disturbed that progress. No thought 
of war had checked it. The wars of other lands and other 
ages were, in Australia, not the catastrophic crises of 
national fate, but part of the picturesque tradition of a 
Cvtriicrtil Service Bud^c 
