AU PARLEMENT CANADIEN POUR PRÉSENTER LE DON DE LA FRANCE

To the Right Honourdble C. J. DOHERTY,

acting Prime Minister.

Mister Minister,

It was most gratifying to hear when we left France that we mightfind in Ottawa as Governor General of the Dominion the great soldier, once chief of the Canadian troops that fought on French soil, the glorious conqueror of Vimy.

The Marshal of France, who had the honour of participating more than once in common action with the British Armies in 1916 on the Somme, in 1917 in Italy, in 1918 in Picardy, and during the gênerai offensive would hâve been particularly happy to meet hère, on the friendly soil of Canada, a former comrade-in-arms. It would hâve been a delight to be able to assure him that the feelings of mutual confidence and esteem which developed between our troops during the war, are still alive and our French heartsfeel that thèse sentiments are the surest guarantee of our lasting union.

Please convey to him, Mister Minister, with an expression of my heartfelt compliments, our most cordial salute.

You know, Mister Minister, the object of our Mission.

We bring to the Canadian people the expression of the gratitude of France for the great and generouspart Canada played in the battle for the liberty of the world and for the common victory.

To give to this démonstration its full and deep significance our country felt that the Mission sent to you ought to include not merely officers of our naval and land forces, but members of parliament, as well as raen distin-

£ 24I $ AU CANADA. — lC>

guished alike in literature, science, art and économies. She has chosen them from among the best.

Our women too are représentée!, the better to express to the Canadian mothers and wives our gratitude for the generous aid they gave our soldiers and our wounded in the most varied and touching forms.

It is thus, in reality, the entire French Nation that offers to the whole of the Canadian people a token of theesteem and the affection of France.

In 1914, at the beginning of the war, after the criminal violation of Belgium's neutrality bv the Germans, when France was invaded and in mortal péril, none of usdoubted for a moment that Canada would immediately spring to the rescue of France and Great Britain menaced as they were with being sundered from each other.

You were not prepared for war, but you were ready for any and every effort, your hearts were steeled to every sacrifice.

Already by October a picked corps of 33.000 men assembled in the camp of Yalcartier had been shipped to Europe. Infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineers, ail were perfectly equipped.

By February 19 15, the first Canadian Divisions began to arrive in France and a few weeks later. they were in the battle line at the most difftcult and dangerous spot of the front, the salient of Ypres.

Let us admire Mister Minister, the designs ofProvidence. God willed that your very first action should be décisive aid givento the French troops.

On April 22nd, the Germans that no atrocity arrests, no violation of the law of nations shames, launch an attack preceded by waves of asphyxiating gas. Despairing of ever being able to conquer by shot and shell, they had recourse to poison !

The infernal waves submerged the French battalion holding the sector of Langemark. Our men are blinded, intoxicated, their weapons fall from their hands, they drop in their places, and Lo ! — the road to Ypres lies open.

Luckily, to the right of the French are the Canadians of the Second and Third Brigades. They too hâve felt the effects of the poisonous gas, but the w 'ind, blowing less favorably towards their sector, has left them the material possibility of standing their ground. They immediately counter-attack, without awaiting orders, force the enemy to fall back. and close the breach !

Such was your début, and such a start as this is exactly what we both of us would hâve wished. It is the plastic matérialisation, so to say, of the object you had set before you.

1 was told that, forsome days after, the battle French soldiers from Langemark were to be found in your régiments. They had become attached to you and did not want to leave you. With you they felt themselves quite at home, as if among their own people.

I will not undertake to follow in détail the Canadian Division amid the épopée of the Great War. The task would be a long one. Every where we