From the News

Dated: September 8, 1916

LETTER FROM SOMEWHERE

(Special from Anne Merrill)

    As a stage-setting for the warlike pageant which took place yesterday a few miles from Bramshott when the new war secretary, Mr. Lloyd George with General Sam, reviewed the Fourth Canadian Division, picture in your imagination a giant dull green and mottled basin about the extent of the one in which Calgary is built and with a surrounding and receding brim, also like Calgary's hilly reaches only without the prairie town's distant cool summits; and in place of the silvery grey-green and sturdy oderous sage, the mounds here covered with a kind of bristling pale heather. I say "a kind of" timidly because of being roundly charged with ignorance by one of the clan McKenzie (who was there among the 37 journalists accompanying the official party) for calling any of that stuff heather! Now a Scotsman bristles if you try to stake any claims on his hillside. No wonder they gave him the thistle for emblem!

    Then, of a sudden, the very hills themselves seemed to be moving and disintegrating as the khaki Canadians - 16,000 of them - began their march past in the glow of that sunlight which is so very welcome in old England when it does condescend to shine. And as each group of infantry passed the saluting base, where stood Sir Sam with the distinguished Welshman and two Russian generals (whose names nobody but a fool or a scholar would attempt to spell) a Canadian moving picture man in khaki stood by with his queer machine which seemed all legs and eyes, to record every movement of the troops - movements, happily, which the censor has not the slightest objection to being made public.

    "Eyes right!"

    "Eyes front!"

    The blackest printers' ink fails to carry with it the proper thrill these commands stirred in the hearts of those who watched that ever-to-be-remembered march of men, in full war paint and feathers, as each mounted officer in turn shouted back over his shoulder the orders to his men tramping along in the yellow dust behind him to do and undo their salute to Kitchener's successor.

    As you looked at them you could not shut out the thought that they might go away at any moment, to fill in gaps made by Hun guns; that certainly not all of them would by any chance come again to that same plain nor yet to Canada. It was like the vision of Mirza. If you watched them long enough and far beyond the hills of Bramshott, your eyes would dim with tears to see them drop one by one from the bridge of life.

    And that is why I claim that the Fourth Division is no less glorious than the first. Every man of this new army knows exactly what he is going forward to face, and somehow, to me the later ones seem braver. The first division knew little - how could they? - of modern warfare. Over they came, leaping joyously as the splendid adventurers they were, and while not undervaluing their patriotism, I cannot agree with the Canadian officer who said to me yesterday after that wonderful army disappeared in clouds of dust.

    "If I had not come over with the first, I would have been ashamed to come at all".

    Colonel de Sallis of Victoria, B.C., the deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general of this division stood nearby our squad of journalists (both English and Canadian) and was of great assistance in calling out as each unit came into the picture, the number of it and any other particulars he thought would be of interest.

    Brigadier-General St. Pierre Hughes mounted on a fine charger of the Tenth Brigade, led the review. Great were the demonstrations all along the line of march where there must have been twenty thousand people who had assembled to cheer gaily with their lips, but to say in their hearts a quiet, dumb "good-bye" to the going away troops and the cheers were raised at intervals throughout the two solid hours of the troops passing.

    There was the ammunition columns made up of Red-River-like carts, but very small, each covered snugly with canvas - most innocent looking vehicles drawn by six sleek mules. One of the animals gave forth a very loud bray, assuredly a most strange and unearthly sound from a military point of view! Is it possible his usual poise was upset by the massed bands who were playing into the mules' long ears, "The Men of Harlech"? The bands were remembering to pay a delicate compliment to the new war secretary on his nationality, if entirely forgetting the sensibilities of the beasts of burden.

    Then the signallers came along, some leading cycles, and others having wheeled things upon which were mounted great spools of steel thread which is not to be used for sewing on a soldier's buttons. This much may be stated without divulging any military secrets.

    Much speculation took place along our part of the line when in the distance a number of wheeled carts jogged into the foreground bearing huge covered cans and stoves with real fires in them and real smoke curling out of their long pipes. In a minute a most delicious smell of beef stew was wafted to us on a favouring breeze, saving Colonel de Sallis the necessity of explaining to the busy note takers that these constituted the field kitchen in active operation. It was the first time they had appeared "on parade" I was afterwards told.

    This, more than anything else perhaps in the infantry train, brought home to us a little of the reality of war and what it would mean to our Canadians in actual battle were they forced too far in advance of these most ungraceful though very vital batteries of regeneration.

        Cheers for 50^th Battalion

    The review moved in the following order: Tenth Brigade, Brigadier-General St. Pierre Hughes; 44^th Battalion, Winnipeg, Colonel Wayland; 46^th Saskatchewan, Colonel Snell (the colonel himself was absent from his regiment owing to an accident recently during bomb instruction when he and his motor were injured); 47^th British Columbia, Colonel Wilsby; 50^th Calgary, Colonel Mason (who got a rousing cheer, and well he deserved it); Eleventh Brigade, General Odlum (their field kitchen guarded by six stern sentinels), everybody gives great praise to this new-created general; 75^th Toronto, Colonel Beckett, stretcher bearers following; 87^th Montreal, Colonel Frost, 102^nd British Columbia, Colonel Warden, formerly captain in the famous 7^th; 38^th Ottawa (the regiment that was in Bermuda), in command of Colonel Edwards. ("Say something nice about him," said a pretty little lady who stood near and noted my pencil in action.) I found later she was Mrs. Porteous, wife of Captain Porteous of Montreal, at the front with General Turner. 12^th Brigade, Lord Brooke, brigadier general; 72^nd B.C. Seaforth Highlanders, Colonel J.A. Clark, Vancouver, distinguished by khaki aprons worn over their kilts, of which an uninitiated said they were worn to keep the dust off their kilts! The red tape loops on their socks were very saucy; 73^rd Montreal Highlanders, Colonel Davidson, all khaki kilts, many lads having maple leaves tatooed on their knees, probably accounting for their vigourous resolve not to be "properly clad"; 78^th Winnipeg Grenadiers, Colonel Kirkcaldy; 12^th Field Ambulance with a maple leaf and red cross on the side of each wagon and ambulance, Colonel Biggar, Vancouver; and then the 4^th divisional train, Colonel de Sallis announcing, "otherwise the Canadian Army Service Corps," and a very special cheer went up for these men whose work is often looked upon as unromantic. It may not appeal to the imagination, but it appeals to the generals, who know that they could not keep house without it.

    In the tail of the procession was the Yukon machine [gun] battery and the husky gold-mine sweepers and prospectors were a magnificent "bunch." When the animal leaps to the front, the tail will be ready to lash with great fury, and to show the world it is just as important as any other part of the cougar's anatomy.