CANADA'S ARMY IN FRANCE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 201, 18 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

CANADA'S ARMY IN FRANCE

COMPLETE CORPS UNDER SIR JULIAN BYNG. U MONTHS' RECORD. • It is nearly fourteen months 9'nce the Canadians fought tlicir great fight at Ypres, and kept the battered "salient" safe when it was in danger of falling under the memorable German gas ittack. Now, says a London paper, they have fought another great tight in another section of the "salient." What is not perhaps realised is chjt during all the intervening yem th« Ypres "salient" or a good share of t. has been held day and night by the Canadians, who during all that period have kept up a continuous trench warfare against the Germans in one of the? most fiercely contested parts of the British front. Canada's army has expanded wonderfully since the battle a year ago. At that time onl ythc first Canadian J)r - is.ion had j.oiicto the front. A second division followed, and a third division lias also gone out. Other divisions arj in training , ; n England and in Canada. At the present time Canada has its own complete army corps in France, commanded bv '.hat fine soldier, LieutGeneral Sir Julian Byng. More than 300,001 Canadians have already enlisted, but Sir Samuel Hughes will not l>e satisfied until the half-million has been reached. The Canadians have won their place in the Empire's roll of fame. A list compiled recently showed that they have won — 5 Y.C.s. 61 D.S.O.s. 51 Military Crosses. 30 D.C.M.s. 490 mentions in despatches. M.P.s WHO ARE OFFICERS.

Another Ist shews that twenty-five members of the Dominion Parliament and fortyone members of Canadian provincial legislatures hold commissions in tli3 Canadian army. Every kind of Canadian bus joined. Newspaper men are what the films call a "feature" in the Canadian army. So are actors. On*« officer declares that actors make the best solders, and ho has written to all his friends in Canada begging them to send him all th? actors they can. Vcv,- of the Canadian battalion oiticors —apart from the "Princes?. Pat's" —had seen war until th's war began although many had served in the Canadian Militia. Their reputation for initiative, for resource, and for general unbeatableness now stands very high.

In the United States the Canadian soldiers are so popular that Buffalo liill recently engaged a, party of returned men, discharged as unlit for further service, to take part in the evergreen Wild West show.

With the Royal Flying Corps Canud. ians are equally popular, as performers. Canada has supplied many aeroplanes, which bear the names of the towns wli'oh paid for them, and their records at the front are followed with eager pirde. There is as yet no separate Cnnadian flying corps, but a number of Canadian flying men have done so well that the R.F.C. has called for 800 recruits from Canada.

Canada has not adopted compulsion, but there has been no difficulty hitherto in raising the needed battalions. One method which has been attended with great success has been to send back officers who have fought in France to raise fresh battarons in their home districts. The men of Scottish descent in one of the provinces have recently been raising a new battalion of Canadian Scots, one of the attractions being that the battalion will have a hundred pipers, and that no other music will be permitted. The mascots are to be a ram and a. collie dog specially obtained from Scotland.

It is one of the legends of the past that discipline : n the Canadian battalions is not so good as in British. Those who have seen the Canadians at the front say that no discipline could lie better than that of the men who have held the Ypi'es salient for more thr.n p. v-ar.