Part 8

Courage came to you with your boyhood's grace Of ardent life and limb. Each day new dangers steeled you to the test, To ride, to climb, to swim. Your hot blood taught you carelessness of death With every breath.

So when you went to play another game You could not but be brave: An Empire's team, a rougher football field, The end--perhaps your grave. What matter? On the winning of a goal You staked your soul.

Yes, you wore courage as you wore your youth With carelessness and joy. But in what Spartan school of discipline Did you get patience, boy? How did you learn to bear this long-drawn pain And not complain?

Restless with throbbing hopes, with thwarted aims, Impulsive as a colt, How do you lie here month by weary month Helpless and not revolt? What joy can these monotonous days afford Here in a ward?

Yet you are merry as the birds in spring, Or feign the gaiety, Lest those who dress and tend your wound each day Should guess the agony. Lest they should suffer--this the only fear You let draw near.

Graybeard philosophy has sought in books And argument this truth, That man is greater than his pain, but you Have learnt it in your youth. You know the wisdom taught by Calvary At twenty-three.

Death would have found you brave, but braver still You face each lagging day, A merry Stoic, patient, chivalrous, Divinely kind and gay. You bear your knowledge lightly, graduate Of unkind Fate.

Careless philosopher, the first to laugh, The latest to complain, Unmindful that you teach, you taught me this In your long fight with pain: Since God made man so good--here stands my creed-- God's good indeed.

W. M. LETTS _By permission of the Author From "Hallow E'en and Other Verses"-- John Murray, London_

SPEECH DELIVERED BY LIEUT.-GEN. SIR A. W. CURRIE IN LONDON BEFORE AUGUST OFFENSIVE, 1918

Just before the Canadian entrance into the great offensive of August, 1918, General Sir Arthur W. Currie, during a short visit to London, delivered the following message from the Canadian Army Corps under his command:

The situation is a serious one, and it is better for all peoples to know the fact. Germany has struck four mighty blows with success on each occasion, and it is just a question of how many of these blows we can stand. Personally, I think that the factor that can be turned in our favour is this: If we stop and fight the Boche, we will kill a sufficient number to make him silly, while America develops enough strength to turn the man power in our favour. The British soldier realizes that he is a better man than the Boche, and he believes that the German army can be beaten. Our men do not regard the Boche as a superman; and, remembering the crimes they have committed, we shall never take such delight in killing them as when we next meet them. Germany is simply a mad dog that must be killed, a cancerous growth that must be removed.

I suppose that I am the proudest man in the British Isles to-night, but I am not the happiest. I am the proudest man because I command the finest fighting force in all the Allied armies. An officer of Canadian birth, who has spent the whole of his military career with the British Army, and married an English wife, told me the other day that he was proud to be a Canadian, for everywhere he went men spoke of the deeds of the Canadian Army Corps. When the women with their children and the old men were fleeing before enemy forces on the Western Front on a not very distant occasion, and learned that the troops meeting them were Canadians, they turned round and went back home. On another occasion, when visiting a British Headquarters, I saw a Brigadier sitting by the roadside, tired, and dirty, and wan. He called out, "Who's that coming along?" When the reply was, "General Currie", he said, "Are the Canadians coming down here?" Told that they were, he threw his hat in the air and declared, "Then we are all right now".

When we came to England first, we were not regarded as the finest fighting soldiers. We had many things said about us unjustly; and suggestions were put about that it was improbable we should ever become good soldiers. Everywhere to-day, at General Headquarters and all other places, it is recognized that Canadian soldiers are fit to take their place beside the veteran soldiers of the British Army, with whom we are proud to serve.

I know that it has been said that Canadians and other Overseas troops are placed in the hottest parts of the war area. The greatest fighting of the war has been this year, and we have not taken any particular part in it. The Boche has not attacked the Canadian Front. He knows that he has never yet met the troops from Canada without suffering severely. The turn of the Canadian Corps must come. The temper of the Canadian soldier is that there is no position he is asked to take that he will not take; and I know that the Boche will not take any part of our line, except over the dead bodies of your Canadian fellow-citizens. That is why I am not the happiest man in the British Isles to-night. The Canadian Corps is going to die. It is simply a question of who can stand killing the longer.

I have never seen the Corps in finer fighting fettle than it is to-day. The Canadians are now more efficient than ever; and we could not be in that position unless we were backed up by General Sir Richard Turner and his staff in England. There is a feeling of co-operation now that never existed before; and the better the liaison we have between France, England, and Canada, the better it is for the fighting forces.

And so we stand in a great cause, on the eve of great events. We have to preserve the British Empire. It would be a terrible calamity if anything should happen that would make the peoples of the British Empire hesitate at such a juncture. The British Empire must be saved.

THE AIR MEN

(This poem was written before 1914, but it so well portrays the conditions which prevailed in the last year of the Great War that it is here reproduced.)

We brought great ships to birth, We builded towns and towers-- Lords of the sea and earth, Soon shall the sky be ours.

Soon shall our navies drift Like swallows down the wind, Shall wheel and swoop and lift, Leaving the clouds behind.

The stars our keels shall know. The eagle, as it flies, Shall scream to see us go Swift moving through the skies.

High o'er the mountain-steep Our wingèd fleets shall sail. The serried squadrons sweep, White-pinioned down the gale.

We are the lords of the land, We built us towns and towers. The sea has felt our hand-- Soon shall the sky be ours.

NORAH HOLLAND _From "Spun-yarn and Spindrift"--By permission of the Author and of J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., Toronto_

EXTRACTS FROM SPEECH

(_September, 1918_)

Canada's war record is made, though not completed. Nothing she can do in the future will detract from her great past in this world struggle. She has shown herself a true daughter of Great Britain. She has spared neither sons nor treasure to help her Alma Mater to save the world.

. . . . . . . . . .

Well done, Canadians, you are a great people, and you may proudly stand among the nations who are saving the world.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

KING GEORGE'S MESSAGE TO THE NAVY

(_November 11, 1918_)

THE NAVY To the Right Hon. Sir Eric Geddes, G.B.E., K.C.B., M.P., First Lord of the Admiralty

Now that the last and most formidable of our enemies has acknowledged the triumph of the Allied arms on behalf of right and justice, I wish to express my praise and thankfulness to the officers, men, and women of the Royal Navy and Marines, with their comrades of the Fleet auxiliaries and mercantile marine, who for more than four years have kept open the sea, protected our shores, and given us safety.

Ever since that fateful Fourth of August, 1914, I have remained steadfast in my confidence that, whether fortune frowned or smiled, the Royal Navy would once more prove the sure shield of the British Empire in the hour of trial.

Never in its history has the Royal Navy, with God's help, done greater things for us, nor better sustained its old glories and the chivalry of the seas.

With full and grateful hearts the peoples of the British Empire salute the White, the Red, and the Blue Ensigns, and those who have given their lives for the Flag.

I am proud to have served in the Navy. I am prouder still to be its head on this memorable day.

GEORGE R.I.

SKY SIGNS

When all the guns are sponged and cleaned, and fuses go to store, When all the wireless stations cry--"COME HOME, YOU SHIPS OF WAR"-- "COME HOME AGAIN AND LEAVE PATROL, NO MATTER WHERE YOU BE". We'll see the lights of England shine, Flashing again on the steaming line, As out of the dark the long gray hulls come rolling in from sea.

THE LONG-FORGOTTEN LIGHTS WILL SHINE, AND GILD THE CLOUDS AHEAD, OVER THE DARK HORIZON-LINE, ACROSS THE DREAMING DEAD THAT WENT TO SEA WITH THE DARK BEHIND AND THE SPIN OF A COIN BEFORE. Mark the gleam of Orfordness, Showing a road we used to guess, From the Shetland Isles to Dover Cliffs--the shaded lane of war.

UP THE CHANNEL WITH GLEAMING PORTS WILL HOMING SQUADRONS GO, AND SEE THE ENGLISH COAST ALIGHT WITH HEADLANDS ALL AGLOW WITH THIRTY THOUSAND CANDLE-POWER FLUNG UP FROM FAR GRIS-NEZ. Portland Bill and the Needles' Light, Tompions back in the guns to-night-- For English lights are meeting French across the Soldiers' Way.

WHEN WE COME BACK TO ENGLAND THEN, WITH ALL THE WARRING DONE, AND PAINT AND POLISH COME UP THE SIDE TO RULE ON TUBE AND GUN, WE'LL KNOW BEFORE THE ANCHOR'S DOWN, THE TIDINGS WON'T BE NEW. Lizard along to the Isle of Wight, Every lamp was burning bright, Northern Lights or Trinity House--we had the news from you!

KLAXON _By permission of Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh_

ORDER TO THE CANADIANS AFTER THE CAPTURE OF MONS

(_November, 1918_)

Some of you have already commenced, while others are about to march on the Rhine, liberating Belgium in your advance. In a few days you will enter Germany and hold certain parts, in order to secure the fulfilment of the terms of the armistice preliminary to the peace treaty. The rulers of Germany, humiliated and demoralized, have fled. That unscrupulous nation, who in 1914 set at naught every treaty and violated every moral obligation, who has since perpetrated the most ferocious atrocities on land as well as on sea, is beaten, famished, and at our mercy. Justice has come. Retribution commences. During four long years, conscious of the righteousness of your cause, you have fought many battles and endured cruel hardships, and now your mighty efforts are rewarded. Your fallen comrades are avenged. You have demonstrated on the battle-field your superior courage and unfaltering energy. By the will of God you have won, won, won, marching triumphantly through Belgium. You will be received everywhere as liberators, but the kindness and generosity of the population must not cause any relaxation of your discipline or alertness. Your task is not yet completed, and you must remain what you are--a close-knitted army in grim, deadly earnest. German agents scattered throughout the country must not be able to report to their German masters any weakness or evidence of disintegration of your fighting power. It is essential that on the march and at the halt discipline must be of the highest standard. Every possible protection should be taken at all times to guard against hostile acts by organized bodies, and to lessen the possibilities, always present, of isolated murders or desperate guerilla acts by factions of the enemy. Above all, it is of capital importance to establish in Germany the sense of your overwhelming moral and physical standing, so as to complete by the presence of your potential strength the victories you have won on the battle-field. All external signs of discipline must be insisted upon, and the example in this, as in all instances, must come from the leaders.

Clothing and equipment must be, if possible, spotless, well kept, and well put on. Badges and distinguishing marks must be complete, while the transport should be as clean as the circumstances will allow. In short, you must continue to be, and appear to be, that powerful-hitting force which has won the fear and respect of your foes and the admiration of the world.

It is not necessary to say that the population and private property will be respected. You will always remember that you fought for justice, right, and decency, and that you cannot afford to fall short of these essentials, even in the country against which you have every right to feel bitter.

Rest assured that the crimes of Germany will receive adequate punishment. Attempts will be made, by insidious propaganda, to undermine the source of your strength; but you, the soldier citizens of the finest and most advanced democracy in the world, will treat such attempts with the contempt they deserve. You know that self-imposed, stern discipline has made you the hardest, most successful, and cleanest fighters of this war. Beginning by the immortal stand at the second battle of Ypres, you befittingly closed by the capture of Mons your fighting record, in which every battle you fought is a resplendent page of glory. I trust you, and the people at home trust you, while the memory of your dead comrades demands of you to bring back that glorious record, pure and unsullied, to Canada.

ARTHUR W. CURRIE, Lieut.-Gen. Commanding Canadian Corps

TRIBUTE

They need no dirge, for Springtime fills All things with tribute unto them; The music of the daffodils Shall be a soldier's requiem Among a thousand hills.

Blow, golden trumpets, mournfully, For all the golden youth that's fled, For all the shattered dreams that lie Where God has laid the quiet dead Under an alien sky.

But blow triumphant music, too, Across the world from sea to sea, Because the heart of youth was true, Because our England proved to be Even greater than we knew.

MILDRED HUXLEY _By permission of the Author_

ON THE NAVY

(_December, 1918_)

Our safety from invasion, our daily bread, every means whereby we maintain our existence as an independent people, our unity as an Empire, or federation of commonwealths and dependencies--all these float from hour to hour upon our naval defence.

. . . . . . . . . .

If that defence is neglected, weakened, or fettered, we should be in continual danger of subjugation or starvation. We should be forced to live in continued anxiety. If that naval defence were overthrown or outmatched by any other Navy or probably by a combination of navies, we should hold, not merely our possessions, but our lives and liberties only on sufferance.

Where else in the whole world can such conditions be paralleled? We have the right to demand from all other nations, friends and foes alike, full recognition of these facts. We are also entitled to point out that this naval strength that we require, and which we are determined to preserve, has never been used in modern history in a selfish and aggressive manner, and that it has, on four separate occasions, in four separate centuries--against Philip the Second of Spain, Louis the Fourteenth, Napoleon, and the Kaiser--successfully defended civilization from military tyranny, and particularly, preserved the independence of the Low Countries.

In this greatest of all wars, the British Navy shielded mighty America from all menace of serious danger; and, when she resolved to act, it was the British Navy that transported and escorted the greater proportion of her armies to the rescue and deliverance of France.

Our record in a hundred years of unquestioned naval sway since Trafalgar, proves the sobriety of our policy and the righteousness of our intentions. Almost the only ports in the world open freely to the commerce of all nations were those of our Island. Its possessions and our coaling-stations were used freely and fully by ships of all nations. We suppressed the slave trade. We put down piracy. We put it down again the other day. Even our coastwise traffic, so jealously guarded by every Power in the world, was thrown open to all comers on even terms, by that ancient people in whose keeping the world has been wisely ready to intrust the freedom of the seas.

. . . . . . . . . .

We are sincere advocates of a league of nations. Every influence Britain can bring to bear will be used to make such a league a powerful reality. This fine conception of President Wilson has been warmly welcomed by British democracies all over the world. We shall strive faithfully and loyally to carry it into being, and keep it in active benefit and existence. But we must state quite frankly that a league of nations cannot be for us a substitute for the British Navy in any period that we can foresee.

RT. HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL

THE DEBT UNPAYABLE

What have I given, Bold sailor on the sea, In earth or heaven, That you should die for me?

What can I give, O soldier, leal and brave, Long as I live, To pay the life you gave?

What tithe or part Can I return to thee, O stricken heart, That thou shouldst break for me?

The wind of Death For you has slain life's flowers, It withereth (God grant) all weeds in ours.

F. W. BOURDILLON _By permission of the Author_

KING GEORGE IN PARIS

(_November 28, 1918_)

In proposing the health of President Poincaré, the King said:

It is difficult for me adequately to express the great pleasure that I feel in being your guest here to-night in this fair city of Paris, and in the midst of the great nation with which during past years I and my people have mingled our sorrows and our joys, and are now triumphantly crowned by overwhelming victory over the common enemy.

We can all remember the repeated and desperate efforts made by the German armies to reach and capture this great capital; but, thanks to the bravery of the splendid French Army and the loyal co-operation of the Allies, the aims of the enemy have been defeated; and by the skilful direction and the strategy of the distinguished Marshal Foch, the troops of the invader have been hurled across the frontier and compelled to sue for peace.

Mr. President, I congratulate you and the noble French nation upon the great victory that has been achieved, in which my generals and armies are proud to have taken part. In the life and death conflict in which our nations have been together engaged for civilization and for right against the methods of barbarism and the forces of destruction, the French and British peoples have learned in unity of purpose to appreciate each other and their respective ideals.

They have created a union of hearts and an identity of interests that, I trust, will ever grow closer, and contribute materially to the consolidation of peace and the advancement of civilization.

Lastly, let me add one word of sympathy for those heroic Frenchmen and French women who have suffered at the hands of the invader such as few have suffered, except in Belgium. And let us not forget the immortal dead, whose names will ever be enshrined in one of the most glorious pages of the history of the world.

My soldiers have fought during all these years of relentless war side by side with the soldiers of France, whose valiant deeds have added fresh lustre to their immortal traditions. The sailors of our two navies have, together, kept these as in a comradeship and mutual trust which the length of the war itself has only served more and more to foster and strengthen.

With all my heart I thank you for your friendly feelings and the terms in which you have proposed my health. Accept also my cordial thanks for your generous hospitality and for the opportunity which you have afforded me in these ever memorable days of victory to pay my respectful homage to the French nation.

BRITAIN'S DAY

(_December 7, 1918_)

(This message was cabled to the United States on the day set apart for publicly acknowledging the achievements of the British Empire in the Great War.)

The achievements of the British Empire for humanity are too manifold to enumerate in a short message. Entering the war to defend the rights of nations, she has unhesitatingly given her sons and her wealth. Gathered from her loyal dominions, the men of the British Empire have carried their victorious eagles over many a bloody field. Steadfast in adversity, wounded with a thousand wounds, Britain's hammer blows have never weakened or faltered. But for the tenacity of her people the war would have been lost.

To those of us who have been associated with them and who have fought beside their gallant troops, words of praise seem inadequate to express our admiration. These things our kinsmen have done, and these things have brought an inseparable union between them and ourselves. To the British people, we extend our thanks for the powerful aid her navy has given, and offer our great respect for the resolute Anglo-Saxon determination with which she has held on, and we offer our right hand of friendship that our two nations may be more firmly linked together to insure the future peace of the world.

GEN. J. J. PERSHING

GIFTS FROM THE DEAD

Ye who in Sorrow's tents abide, Mourning your dead with hidden tears, Bethink you what a wealth of pride They've won you for the coming years.

Grievous the pain; but, in the day When all the cost is counted o'er, Would it be best that you should say: "We lost no loved ones in the war"?

Who knows? But proud then shall ye stand That best, most honoured boast to make: "My lover died for his dear land", Or, "My son fell for England's sake".

Christlike they died that we might live; And our redeemed lives would we bring, With aught that gratitude may give To serve you in your sorrowing.

And never a pathway shall ye tread, No foot of seashore, hill, or lea, But ye may think: "The dead, _my_ dead, Gave this, a sacred gift, to me".

P. HABBERTON LULHAM _By permission of the Author_

THE WOMAN'S TOLL

O Mother, mourning for the son who keeps His last dread watch by unfamiliar streams, Or for that other, gay of heart, who sleeps Where the great waters guard his secret dreams, Amid your tears take comfort for a space, They showed them worthy of their island race.

O Wife, who heard across the wintry sea Death's trumpet shrill for him who goes no more Riding at dawn with that brave company Whose fellowship no morning shall restore, In whose dark heart your bitterest hour shall bring Scents from the scattered petals of the spring.

O Maid, with wondering eyes untouched of grief, War's dreadful shadow spares your innocent years, Yet shall you deem the ways of sunshine brief, Paying long hence your toll of hidden tears For love that perished ere the web was spun, And children that shall never see the sun.

RUTH DUFFIN _Joint Author, with Celia Duffin, of "The Secret Hill" By permission of the Author_

PILGRIMS