LONDON IN WAR-TIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 296, 3 September 1918, Page 3

LONDON IN WAR-TIME

WHAT A CANADIAN SOLDIER SAW. Tlio following is an extract from tho letter of Gapfcaia A. E. Alien, a Canadian soldier, written on reaching London, and published in "Even , Week," » journal which, owing to the war conditions, is now a thing of the past:— I'oor old London. She is the same, but in mourning. Dim street lights riiid very littlo traffic make the streets doleful. -But the gloom of the evenings and nights is not rclleetcd in the pc.opin. They aro wonderful I

If only some people from every city, town, and village in tlio States could como over here and see and talk with these meii and women, who have put in three years of war, every one having family losses and in all ruses financial sacrifices that change their whole mode of life! Inconveniences of every kind, and real ones, and yet, everyman and woman just as cheerful, bright, and determiner] as if the war was to start to-morrow. It makes one feel like going no to every one of them and giving them tlie-'V.O. Gentlewomen driving cars, running all the hotels, all tho business offices—on tlio subways, in the restaurants, in the factories— everywhere setting an example to their poorer sisters of what real grit is, and as cheerful and with the same grace and politeness that they used to have in their own drawing-rooms. Every one lias some definite, work to do, and thr ; y> start at' about sis yenrs old! There is no such thing as the British Army being at war; the British nation, down to the children and up to tho old people, is at war; and.it's tho most, wonderful and inspiring sight any man ever saw.

Of cour.se, France, Germany, and the other European nations are the same; but it's a revelation' to one from tho other side of the water. Undoubtedly the United States would be the same if the occasion over came, but I trust it never may. .

The saying thnfc the United States doesn't realise that it is at war is putting tlio fact too mildly, and we esn orilypray that the job will be finished before the necessity ever comes; but, on the oilier hand, the almost inhuman trials and sacrifices they are making over here are breeding a new racfl of nw>n and wonmn who are gotnff to lie head and shoulders over 'the last generation. Heaven o'llv knows, I am a loyal Canadian, and I have always been more than proud of what Canada fiid Canadians have done in this war. But now I can almost blush at tho thought. We don't know we ai'e_ at wovas compared with the English, take it any way you want. Men — every ono—in soino war work: not some—all. Women all working for tho ewe. Money—everybody giving, not tliejr surplus, their all. You can not begin to realise what this nation lias done, and I am afraid the world will not know it for years, because thoy do it so ouiptlv—no talking, no hnasfing , it's all' taken for granted, England noeds them and all they possess, and of courso tliov jiive it. ,T roiilfl writr "ii for hours, because this is all a revelation to me, and fascinates me. . .