The Prime Minister’s visit—Passing of politics—End to domestic dissensions—The Imperial idea—Sir Robert’s foresight—Arrival in England—At Shorncliffe—Meeting with General Hughes—Review of Canadian troops —The tour in France—A Canadian base hospital—A British hospital—Canadian graves—Wounded under canvas—Prince Arthur of Connaught—Visiting battle scenes—Received by General Alderson—General Turner’s Brigade—Speech to the men—First and Second Brigades —Sir Robert in the trenches—Cheered by Princess Patricias—Enemy aeroplanes—Meeting with Sir John French—The Prince of Wales—With the French Army— General Joffre—A conference in French—The French trenches—The stricken city of Albert—To Paris—The French President—Conference with the French War Minister—Shorncliffe again—Canadian convalescent home —A thousand convalescents—Sir Robert’s emotion—His wonderful speech—End of journey.

“I think I can trace the calamities of this country to the single source of our not having had steadily before our eyes a general, comprehensive, well-connected, and well-proportioned view of the whole of our dominions, and a just sense of their true bearings and relations.”—Burke.

“And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.”
—Tennyson.

The news that the Prime Minister had arranged a visit to England and to the battlefield in France aroused great and general interest. Since the commencement of the titanic struggle which is now convulsing the world, the standards by which we used to measure statesmen have undergone great modification. The gifts of brilliant platform rhetoric, the arts of partisan debate, the instinct for a conquering election issue, all these have dwindled before the cruel perspective of war into their true insignificance. It is felt here in England to-day, and not least by some of us who are ourselves chargeable in the matter, that it will be long before the politicians at home clear themselves at the inquest of the nation from the charge of having endangered the safety of the Empire by their absorption in those domestic dissensions which now seem at once so remote and so paltry.

And there is already at work a tendency to adopt wholly different standards in measuring men who, in the wasted years which lie behind us, kept steadfast and undeluded eyes upon the Imperial position; who thought of it and dreamed of it, and worked for it, when so many others were preaching disarmament in an armed world, sustaining meanwhile the combative instinct by the fury with which they flung themselves into insane domestic quarrels.

Sir Robert Borden’s was not, perhaps, a personality which was likely to make a swift or facile appeal to that collective Imperial opinion whose conclusions matter so much more than the conclusions of any individual part of the Empire. Modest, unassuming, superior to the arts of advertisement, he never courted a large stage on which to exhibit the services which he well knew he could render to the Empire. To-day it is none the less recognised that Borden has won his place by the side of Rhodes and Chamberlain and Botha, in that charmed circle of clear-sighted statesmen whose exertions, we may hope, have saved the Empire in our generation as surely as Chatham and Pitt and Clive and Hastings saved it in the crisis of an earlier convulsion.

Sir Robert Borden is the first Colonial statesman who has attended a British Cabinet, a precedent which may be fruitful in immense Constitutional developments hereafter.

I wonder whether any of those whose deliberations he assisted recalled the prescience, and the grave and even noble eloquence, with which Sir Robert closed his great speech—delivered how short a time ago !—upon the proposed Canadian contribution to the British Fleet. The passage is worth recalling:—

“The next ten or twenty years will be pregnant with great results for this Empire, and it is of infinite importance that questions of purely domestic concern, however urgent, shall not prevent any of us from rising to the height of this great argument. But to-day, while the clouds are heavy, and we hear the booming of the distant thunder, and see the lightning flash above the horizon, we cannot, and we will not, wait and deliberate until any impending storm shall have burst upon us in fury and with disaster. Almost unaided, the Motherland, not for herself alone, but for us as well, is sustaining the burden of a vital Imperial duty, and confronting an overmastering necessity of national existence. Bringing the best assistance that we may in the urgency of the moment, we come thus to her aid in token of our determination to protect and ensure the safety and integrity of this Empire, and of our resolve to defend on sea as well as on land our flag, our honour, and our heritage.”

This gift of wise and spacious speech has been used more than once with extreme impressiveness— notably at the Guildhall—during the Prime Minister’s recent visit. “All that,” he said, “for which our fathers fought and bled, all our liberties and institutions, all the influences for good which penetrate humanity, are in the balance to-day. Therefore we cannot, because we must not, fail in this war.”

It was my duty to accompany Sir Robert Borden on the visit which he paid to the front, and I gladly embrace this opportunity of substituting for the stories of bloodshed and glory, which have engaged my pen so much, the record of a mission which, though peaceful, was of profound and often of most moving interest.

Sir Robert Borden arrived in England in the middle of July. On Friday, the 16th, he motored to Shorncliffe, accompanied by Sir George Perley and Mr. R. B. Bennett, M.P. There he met General Hughes. At nine o’clock on the morning of the 17th the Canadian troops of the 2nd Division marched past the Prime Minister. It was impossible to watch without emotion, if one came from Canada, this superb body of men gathered from every part of the Dominion, and animated in all ranks by the desire to take their place side by side with the ist Division, and, if possible, to wrest from the war laurels as glorious as theirs. Certainly, on the view, no finer body of men could be imagined, and if to a critical eye it seemed that the tactical efficiency of the Western regiments was a shade higher than that of the Eastern, the reflection readily occurred that the whole of the ist Division was criticised on this very ground, and that this war, of all wars, is not to be determined on the parade ground.

Sir Robert Borden’s tour began on Tuesday, July 20th. Accompanied by Mr. R. B. Bennett and a military staff, he embarked for France. Colonel Wilberforce, the Camp Commandant, who had served on the staff of a former Governor-General of Canada, met him at the pier on his arrival. After lunch he visited a Canadian base hospital, commanded by Colonel McKee, of Montreal. It was pathetic to see the pleasure of the wounded at his presence, and the plainness with which they showed it, in spite of the pain which many of them were suffering.

The next visit was paid to a British hospital, where Sir Robert saw Captain George Bennett, of the Princess Patricias, who was just fighting his way back to consciousness after one hundred and twenty-five days of burning fever.

From the hospital the Prime Minister went to the graveyard, where he planted seeds of the maple tree on the graves of our dead officers and men. The scene was touching, and Sir Robert was deeply moved. Side by side with the British dead, lie Captain Muntz, of the 3rd Battalion Toronto Regiment, Major Ward, of the Princess Patricias, whose fruit farm in the Okanagan Valley lies fallow, and Lieutenant Campbell, of the ist Battalion Ontario Regiment, who won the Victoria Cross and yet did not live to know it. How he won it, against what odds, and facing how certain a death, has been fully told in another chapter.

Sir Robert then visited the McGill College Hospital, commanded by Colonel Birkett, the Canadian Base Hospital, in charge of Colonel Shillington, and Colonel Murray MacLaren’s Hospital, under canvas, in the sand dunes fringing the sea. Everywhere one noticed the same patience under suffering, the same gratitude for all done to relieve pain, and the same sincere and simple pleasure that the Prime Minister of Canada had wished to see them and to thank them.

Perhaps the long corridor tents in the sand dunes impressed themselves most upon the memory. The convalescents stood to attention to receive the Colonial Prime Minister. Some would not be denied whom the medical staff would perhaps rather have seen sitting. Nor was it less moving to notice how illustrious in private life were many members of the brilliant staff which had assembled to meet the first citizen of Canada. Colonel Murray MacLaren, Colonel Finlay, Colonel Cameron, and many others, if they ever reflect upon the immense private sacrifices they have made, would draw rich compensation from the knowledge that their skill and science have in countless cases brought comfort in the midst of suffering to the heroic soldiers of Canada. Sir Robert, in a few sentences of farewell, made himself the mouthpiece of Canada in rendering to them a high tribute of respect and gratitude.

Early on Wednesday morning the Prime Minister set forth to visit the Canadian troops at the front. He was joined in the course of his journey by Prince Arthur of Connaught, who came to represent the Governor-General of Canada.

The road followed took the party near to where Canada, at the second battle of Ypres, held the left of the British line. The Prime Minister examined the position with the greatest care and interest, and looked upon the ruined city of Ypres, and far in the horizon identified the shattered remnants of Messines. And before he left he spoke to those about him, with deep pride and thankfulness, of those who stood and died for the honour of Canada in that great critical day in the Western Campaign.

At noon Sir Robert reached the Canadian Divisional Headquarters, where he was received by General Alderson. Two familiar faces were missing from the number of those who had made the staff dispositions in the great battle. Colonel Romer, then Chief General Staff Officer, always cool, always lucid, always resourceful, had become a Brigadier. He is an extremely able officer, and if a layman may hazard a prediction as to a soldier’s future, he has in front of him a very brilliant and perhaps a very high career. However brilliant and however long it may prove, he will never, I think, forget the second battle of Ypres, or the brave comrades whose exertions it was his duty, under the General, to co-ordinate and direct.

And we missed, too, the quiet but friendly personality of Colonel Wood (now Brigadier-General), who had been transferred to Shorncliffe to organise the Corps Staff. He has returned again to the front, and is now in charge of our “ Administration.” General Wood spent some years at the Royal Military College at Kingston, Ontario, and there acquired a great knowledge of, and sympathy with, the Canadian point of view. He is devoted to the Canadian troops, of whom he is intensely proud, and they on their part understand and trust him.

General Alderson accompanied Sir Robert on his visit to the units of the Division not on duty in the trenches. The Brigade of General Turner was commanded for the last time by that officer, for his soldierly merits have won for him the command of the 2nd Canadian Division. The command of his Brigade has been given to Brigadier-General Leckie, of whom I have frequently written.

Sir Robert addressed the men in a few ringing sentences which excited the greatest enthusiasm in all ranks. The men ran after the moving motor, and the last to desist was Captain Ralph Markham, a gallant officer, who was unhappily killed a few days after by a chance shell as he was returning to billets along a communication trench.

The 2nd Brigade, under the command of General Currie, who has since been given the command of the ist Division, and the ist Brigade (General Mercer) were also visited. Here it was that Colonel Watson, of Quebec, marched past at the head of the 2nd Battalion, leading his men to the trenches. A capable, brave, and very modest officer, he now commands a Brigade in the 2nd Canadian Division.

Sir Robert then visited the trenches accompanied by General Alderson and Brigadier-General Bur-stall, and after a visit to the Army Service Corps, under Colonel Simpson, he parted from General Alderson and his fine command.

His next visit was neither less important nor less interesting, for it was to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. The Regiment, which assembled 500 strong in a field five miles from Canadian Headquarters, received with cheers, which broke out again and again, the Prime Minister and the brother of the Princess, under whose name and favour the Battalion has so bravely fought. Major Pelly was in command, the second-in-command being Lieutenant (now Captain) Niven, of whose deeds I attempted to give some account in the preceding chapter.

The Regiment was formed in three sides of a square and as the Prime Minister and the Prince advanced, the colours, presented by the Princess in Lansdowne Park on that great day which seems so long ago, were ceremoniously unfurled. And, as the tattered folds spread before a light breeze, the clouds broke, and there was a moment or two of bright sunshine. Overhead two enemy aeroplanes flew, and there followed them persistently through the sky bursting shells of shrapnel.

1 Before returning to England, Sir Robert Borden sent the following message to General Alderson, which was circulated in Orders of July 30th:—“The fine spirit of the Canadian Division, and their evident efficiency for the great task in which they are engaged, very deeply impressed me. It was a great privilege to have the opportunity of seeing them, and of conveying to them, from the people of Canada, a message of pride and appreciation. As I said on more than one occasion in addressing the officers and men, they can hardly realise how intensely all Canada has been thrilled by the tidings of their achievements. The President of the French Republic, as well as General Joffre and Sir John French, spoke of the troops under your command in terms of the highest praise. I bid you God speed in the great task in which you are engaged.”

The Prime Minister conveyed in simple words a message from the Governor-General. The Prince, in plain and soldierly language, spoke in deep affection of the Regiment whose glory, he said, was so dear to his sister’s heart. The men were deeply moved.

On his return to Headquarters the Prime Minister was invited to take part in a conference with the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief and his Staff. Among those present was his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

It had been arranged that Sir Robert’s visit to the French armies—a visit most courteously and even pressingly suggested by the French Government—should take place on the conclusion of the conference at General Headquarters.

Sir Robert was received at a small town, which it would be indiscreet to name, by General Joffre. The famous General, who was full of confidence and hope, was surrounded by one of the most brilliant staffs which any army in the world could boast. For a long time he discussed with the most charming frankness, and the most lucid explanations, the position and the prospects of the Allied forces in the field.

The French Staff was most anxious to enlarge upon their plans in conversation with the Prime Minister. It was interesting, indeed, to an observer of Canadian birth, to listen to the animated conversation carried on entirely in French. What reflections did the interview not suggest? The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of France in conference with the Prime Minister of Canada in the throes of a mighty war! Jacques Cartier,

Frontenac, De Levis, De Salaberry, Wolfe, Montcalm, the Heights of Abraham, the far-flung antagonism of the great French arid British nations —how many memories crowded the mind as one silently watched this historic interview ! And, of all reflections, perhaps the most insistent was that the bitterest antagonisms of mankind may be composed in a period relatively very brief.

After a long day in the French trenches, varied by visits to advanced observation posts, from which the Prime Minister could plainly see the German front-line trenches, the party returned through the stricken city of Albert. The majestic fabric of its ancient cathedral has been smitten with a heavy hand. There remain only a scarred and desolate ruin, and the figure of the Madonna—a true Mater Dolorosa—hung suspended in mid-air from the mutilated spire.

And so to Paris, with minds saddened indeed by all the misery and the havoc and the horror, but still full of confidence that right shall yet conquer wrong, that a period shall yet be assigned to that bloody and calculated savagery which has swept over so many fair provinces in Europe, and has not yet abandoned the hope of dominating the world.

The rest of the week was spent with the Government in Paris and in discussion with the French President and the Minister of War. Here again Sir Robert met with the most distinguished kindness. Nothing promising or unpromising in the prospects of the Allies was concealed from him, and on his departure from Paris the First Citizen of France conferred upon the First Citizen of Canada the highest order of the Legion of Honour.

After a visit on the way home to the great Canadian Base Hospital, over which Colonel Bridges, an officer of the Permanent Force, presides, and in which Major Keenan, of Montreal and of the Princess Patricias, gives his services, the party reached Boulogne on Sunday, and were carried back to English soil again.

Monday morning was spent in visiting the great hospital at Shorncliffe, which is under the direction of Colonel Scott, of Toronto. Everywhere one noticed in the hospitals the same cheerfulness, the same patience under suffering, and the same unaffected pleasure at the visit of the Prime Minister.

In the late afternoon the Prime Minister arrived at the Canadian Convalescent Home, where troops are gathered from all the hospitals in England, either to return in due course to duty or leave for ever the military service. This wonderful organisation is under the direction of Captain McCombe. The institution—so largely his creation—is a shining example of what such a home can become under intelligent and humane direction.

The convalescents here were over a thousand strong. Those physically fit stood to attention. Others in the blue and white uniform of the hospital leaned heavily upon their crutches. Others lay upon their couches unable to move, but watching and listening intently. All Canada was represented, from Halifax to Vancouver. Here were the survivors of the battle for the Wood; there a remnant of the heroes who charged to save the British left. Here were those brave men who gloriously assaulted the Orchard; there the veterans of the ist Ontario Regiment who attacked on June 15th.

The Prime Minister was profoundly moved. Flanders had moved him too. Nor had he escaped deep feeling when he saw the Canadian troops marching to the trenches. But not until he came face to face with the shattered survivors of four glorious battles, did he openly show that deep spring of emotion and affection which those who saw him will always cherish as their fondest recollection of him.

The warmth and sincerity of his nature found expression in one of the most wonderful speeches which he or anyone else has ever made. It has not been reported; it cannot be reported, for those who heard him were themselves too much moved to recollect the words. But it was a speech vital with humanity; it was the speech of a father who mourned over stricken sons, and, closing in a sterner note, it was the speech of one who foresaw and promised a day of retribution for the conscienceless race which, with cold calculation, had planned this outrage on humanity.

And so ended the memorable journey. The narrative attempted here cannot, of course, be too explicit. But the writer has not altogether failed in his purpose if he has shown the dignity, the restraint, the eloquence, and the wisdom with which the Prime Minister of Canada has represented our great Dominion among the leading soldiers and statesmen of Europe.