“All units, all ranks of the First Canadian Division, I tell you truly, that my heart is so full I hardly know how to speak to you.  It is full of two feelings, the first being sorrow for the loss of those comrades of ours who have gone, the second—­pride in what the First Canadian Division has done.

“As regards our comrades who have lost their lives, and we will speak of them with our caps off [here the general took off his cap, and all did likewise], my faith in the Almighty is such that I am perfectly sure that, in fact, to die for their friends, no matter what their past lives have been, no matter what they have done that they ought not to have done (as all of us do), I repeat that I am perfectly sure the Almighty takes care of them and looks after them at once.  Lads—­we can not leave them better than like that. [Here the general put his cap on, and all did the same.]

“Now, I feel that we may, without any false pride, think a little of what the Division has done during the past few days.  I would first of all tell you that I have never been so proud of anything in my life as I am of this armlet ‘1 Canada’ on it that I wear on my right arm.  I thank you and congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for the part each one of you has taken in giving me this feeling of pride.

“I think it is possible that you do not, all of you, quite realize that if we had retired on the evening of the twenty-second of April when our Allies fell back from the gas and left our flank quite open, the whole of the Seventeenth and Twenty-eighth Divisions would probably have been cut off, certainly they would not have got away a gun or a vehicle of any sort, and probably not more than half the infantry.  This is what our commander-in-chief meant when he telegraphed as he did:  ’The Canadians undoubtedly saved the situation.’  My lads, if ever men had a right to be proud in this world, you have.

“I know my military history pretty well, and I can not think of an instance, especially when the cleverness and determination of the enemy is taken into account, in which troops were placed in such a difficult position; nor can I think of an instance in which so much depended on the standing fast of one division.

“You will remember the last time I spoke to you, just before you went into the trenches at Sailly, now over two months ago, I told you about my old regiment—­the Royal West Kents—­having gained a reputation for not budging from the trenches, no matter how they were attacked.  I said then that I was quite sure that in a short time the army out here would be saying the same of you.  I little thought—­we, none of us thought—­how soon those words would come true.  But now, to-day, not only the army out here, but all Canada, all England, and all the Empire, is saying it of you.

    “The share each unit has taken in earning this reputation is no
    small one.