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HE story of the great fight of the Canadian Division at St. Julien sent a thrill of pride through the Empire. The Canadian people themselves would be the first to disclaim and to protest against any attempt to picture the gallantry, the dash, and the stubborn valour of their men as something overshadowing that of other British troops. "We will be proud,” wrote one young Canadian corporal, "if we may prove ourselves worthy to stand side by side with the Regular Army of England." But men realized that in the final and most severe test Canada had proved herself a nation. It was felt, and with reason, that things could never be the same again between England and Canada. The tie between them, strong before, had been deepened and strengthened by the ultimate sacrifice offered by the Dominion.

It is the supreme consecration of Canada to the Empire," wrote Lord Rosebery. A

memorial service to the Canadian fallen was held in St. Paul's Cathedral, and hours before the service commenced not only were the great aisles of the cathedral itself thronged, but thousands waited outside, anxious to show by their presence their sympathy and admiration.

In Canada the long casualty lists that quickly arrived brought grief, but no repining. In cities like Toronto and Montreal, Winnipeg and Vol. V.-Part 58.

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Vancouver, there was scarce a family of note but had its honoured dead. In Toronto, for example, regiments such as the 48th Highlanders and the Queen's Own Rifles had been recruited in the years of peace from the great financial, professional and commercial families of the city. The University, the clubs, the exchanges and the banks were all strongly represented in the lists. When the regiments first set out for the Front it was difficult for the cheering crowds watching them to realize the gravity of their mission. Now, however, Canada learned to the full what the war meant and what it must cost.

There was passionate pride from one end of the Dominion to the other. East and West, the French of Quebec, the Scottish of Nova Scotia, the English of Toronto, and the Americans of Southern Alberta were united in common grief and common glory. The universal emotion found its expression not alone in glowing speeches in Parliament and in impassioned editorials in the great Canadian newspapers, but also in the quick response of the nation. If there was pride there was also anger, anger at what the Canadian people felt to be the illegitimate methods of war the enemy employed. The story of the use of poisonous gas by the Germans deepened the resentment. Canada felt that there could only

be one response to warfare such as this. The Minister of Militia, General (afterwards Sir) Sam Hughes, led the movement for a great increase in the forces. Canada had started at the beginning of the war to raise 30,000 men ; now she placed the figure at 150,000, with as many more afterwards as might be necessary. There had been 6,000 Canadian casualties in the fighting. For every Canadian who had fallen ten came forward. From all parts of the Dominion recruiting officers reported that they were overwhelmed with offers of service. The question before the Dominion Government was not how many men it could raise, but how many it could equip, drill, and maintain of the men who offered themselves.

The story of what Canada did in the first days of the war is told in an earlier chapter.* In the autumn of 1914 the first Canadian contingent arrived at Salisbury Plain accompanied by the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry-a special corps raised at the cost of Mr. Hamilton Gault, a wealthy Montreal citizen, and named after the daughter of the Duke of Connaught, Vol. II., page 237, et seq.

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the Governor-General. The contingent, placed under the command of Lieutenant-General E. A. H. Alderson, spent an exceedingly trying winter on the Wiltshire downs. The season was one of the wettest on record. The men were for most of the time under canvas. roads around the camp sites, ill-fitted for heavy traffic, became mere quagmires. The troops were many miles from a town, and considerable distances even from small Wiltshire villages.

The Princess Patricia's, largely composed of old soldiers who had seen service in war, were the first to go to the Front. They arrived in France in December, and were at once hurried north and given a heavy spell of trench digging in the rear lines. From there, early in the New Year, they were moved into the fighting trenches.

Two days of heavy marching, sixteen miles each day, brought them close to the front firing lines. After a brief pause at a ruined village, they moved quietly along sheltered roadways into the communicating trenches, and then to the front, where they relieved French troops.

The night was pitch dark; it was raining heavily, and everywhere the countryside was deep in mud. No light could be struck, and commands had to be whispered along the ranks. The slightest sign of life brought an instant bullet from a German sniper. Star shells fired from the German lines at frequent intervals sent a sudden hard blue light on the muddy fields, the broken wire entanglements, and the barely visible earthworks. The men could hear the Germans opposite to them, scarce a stone's throw away, baling the water out of their trenches. The Patricia's settled down at once, with the remainder of the allied forces, to the

the subject of a great deal of adulation, through no desire of its own. Its nickname-" Pat's Pets"-was the subject of much goodhumoured banter. The men protested vigorously. They begged their admirers in Canada to stop talking about them. "Do us the credit of believing that we are neither boasters nor idiots," said one of them at the time, "but just soldiers who are trying to do our soldier's work at the Front as every other regiment in the British Army is. We know that our experience is trivial compared with other regiments, but we try to do as well as we can. like everybody else."

dull and exacting winter routine work. Bitter cold, constant rain, and omnipresent mud were their chief trials. They soon learned that for the moment at least there was nothing to do but to wait, to watch, and to guard themselves from the German fire, keeping under cover. Scouts and sharpshooters were present on either side. lt was scarce possible for a man to raise his hand above the trenches without drawing a quick bullet. It seemed as though the Germans knew the position of every dugout in the Princess Patricia lines. They had rifles so fixed as to cover them exactly, enabling the trigger to be pulled without the necessity of aiming. ·

Princess Patricia's Regiment had been made

Within a month of its arrival at the Front the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry had won the good-will and admiration of every regiment which saw its men and knew its record.

One of the first actions by which the Patricia's drew special attention to themselves was around St. Eloi, where they were holding a line of trenches. Some Germans completed a sap from which they were able to cause the British at this point much trouble. The Patricia's were ordered to sweep them back. Two officers, Lieutenant Crabbe and Lieut. Colquhoun, went to have a look over the ground at midnight, and never returned. The advance was covered by a party of snipers, and they were followed by a group of bomb throwers commanded by Lieut. Papineau. They crept up to