 
|
|
PREFACE
IT is with a
feeling of great hesitation that I send out this account
of my personal experiences in the Great War. As I read
it over, I am dismayed at finding how feebly it suggests
the bitterness and the greatness of the sacrifice of our
men. As the book is written from an entirely personal
point of view, the use of the first personal pronoun is
of course inevitable, but I trust that the narration of
my experience has been used only as a lens through which
the great and glorious deeds of our men may be seen by
others. I have refrained, as far as possible, except where
circumstances seemed to demand it, from mentioning the
names of officers or the numbers of battalions.
I cannot let the book go out without
thanking, for many acts of kindness, Lieut.-General Sir
Edwin Alderson, K.C.B., Lieut-General Sir Arthur Currie,
G.C.M.G., K.C.B., and Major-General Sir Archibald Macdonell,
K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., who were each in turn Commanders
of the First Canadian Division. In all the efforts the
chaplains made for the welfare of the Division, they always
had the backing of these true Christian Knights. Their
kindness and consideration at all times were unbounded,
and the degree of liberty which they allowed me was a
privilege for which I cannot be too thankful, and which
I trust I did not abuse.
If,
by these faulty and inadequate reminiscences, dug out
of memories which have blended together in emotions too
deep and indefinable to be expressed in words, I have
reproduced something of the atmosphere in which our glorious
men played their part in the deliverance of the world,
I shall consider my task not in vain.
May
the ears of Canada never grow deaf to the plea of widows
and orphans and our crippled men for care and support.
May the eyes of Canada never be blind to that glorious
light which shines upon our young national life from the
deeds of those “Who counted not their lives dear
unto themselves,” and may the lips of Canada never
be dumb to tell to future generations the tales of heroism
which will kindle the imagination and fire the patriotism
of children that are yet unborn. [Page 11]
|
|
|
|
|
