when lines of trenches skirting the town were taken with 200 prisoners. Meanwhile, on Aug. 15, the chief portion of the Canadian troops had attacked on a front of 4,000 yards south-east of Loos with the strong fortification called Hill 70 as the objective. It had been reached by the British but not held in the Battle of Loos on Sept. 25, 1915. The assault now was successful at light cost and in exact accordance with plans while, at the same time, three mining suburbs of importance were captured. The succeeding actions resulting in the capture of Passchendaele Ridge were thus described by Sir Douglas Haig in his Report of Dec. 25:

On Oct. 26 English and Canadian troops attacked on a front extending from the Ypres-Roulers railway to beyond Poelcappelle. The Canadians attacked on the right on both sides of the small stream known as the Ravebeek, which flows southwestward from Passchendaele. On the left bank of the stream they advanced astride the main ridge and established themselves securely on the small hill south of Passchendaele. North of the Ravebeek strong resistance was met on the Bellevue Spur, a very strong point which had resisted our efforts in previous attacks. With splendid determination the Canadians renewed their attack on this point in the afternoon, and captured it. Two strong counter-attacks south and west of Passchendaele were beaten off, and by nightfall the Canadians had gained practically the whole of their objectives.

On Oct. 30 Canadian and English troops attacked at 5.50 a.m. on a front extending from the Ypres-Roulers railway to the Poelcappelle-Westroosebeke road. On the right the Canadians continued their advance along the high ground and reached the outskirts of Passchendaele, capturing an important position at Crest Farm on a small hill south-west of the village. Fighting was severe at all points, but particularly on the spur west of Passchendaele. Here no less than five strong counter-attacks were beaten off in the course of the day, our troops being greatly assisted by the fire of captured German machine guns in Crest Farm. At 6 a.m. on Nov. 6 Canadian troops renewed their attack and captured the village of Passchendaele, together with the high ground immediately to the north and north-west. Sharp fighting took place for the possession of pill-boxes in the northern end of the village, around Mosselmarkt, and on the Goudberg Spur. All objectives were gained at an early hour, and at 8.50 a.m. a hostile counter-attack was beaten off. Over 400 prisoners were captured in this most successful attack, by which for the second time within the year Canadian troops achieved a record of uninterrupted success. Four days later, in extremely unfavourable weather, British and Canadian troops attacked northward from Passchendaele and Goudberg, and captured further ground on the main ridge after heavy fighting.

No brief record, such as this must be, can give any idea of what the fighting of these months involved; of the universal courage displayed or the heroism so often evoked by opportunity and marked by honours from the Crown or mention in despatches; of the privations cheerfully endured, of the friendly emulation with Empire or Allied soldiers. Canadian troops did not like too much praisethough it would have been difficult to reach that point. They were at this time amongst the best troops on the Front; to say that they were better than the best British or French soldiers would be to express an impossibility. Of the various events summarized above it may be said that the official British report of Aug. 15 described the storming of two miles of German positions east of Loos: "The formidable defences on Hill 70, which resisted our attacks in the Battle of Loos in September, 1915, and had since been improved and strengthened by every method and device known to our enemies, were carried by assault." These lines were held after the capture by

Canadians against what The Times described as "repeated German counter-attacks of the bloodiest and most costly description." It was probably the most desperate fighting that the Canadian Corps faced during the year and on Aug. 22 they had taken another mile of trenches under similar conditions and held one advanced post within the city itself. This conflict was marked by a bloody personal encounter with bayonets in which neither combatant would yield-until the Canadians won over the dead bodies of the enemy. Between the 15th and 22nd 1,400 prisoners were taken. Sir Douglas Haig on the 23rd sent this Message to General Currie:

I desire to congratulate you personally on the complete and important success with which your command of the Canadian Corps has been inaugurated. The Division you employed on Aug. 15 totally defeated four German Divisions, whose losses are reliably estimated at more than double those suffered by the Canadian troops. The skill, bravery, and determination shown in the attack and in maintaining the positions won against repeated heavy counter-attacks were in all respects admirable. To Sir Edward Kemp General Currie cabled in reply to congratulations that "in repeated and determined counter-attacks the flower of the German army was thrown against us, but our line remained unshaken as our own Rockies. Will not the pride which you say Canada has in her sons inspire her to send us men to take the place of those so nobly fallen?" As days and weeks passed the Canadians continued to press upon and crowd the defenders of Lens-raiding at times the very heart of the blood-stained city, holding houses faced by the enemy across the street, fighting day and night, winning many decorations and multiplying incidents of heroism. Then they were relieved and placed on the Passchendaele line where more open and conspicuous fighting took place and they smashed their way through Bellevue Spur and other fortifications to and over the Ridge. Of the Bellevue fight much might be said. While pressing up the slope the men were frequently hip-deep in the squelching mire and struggled onward thus for six hours until in the face of a shattering machine-gun fire they were ordered to withdraw temporarily. Then re-inforcements were brought up, the waves re-organized, the Canadians advanced again and yard by yard the semi-liquid slope was breasted. Pill-box after pill-box was cleared until the crest of the spur was reached and passed. In the British offensive of June-October, which as a whole took the Messines, Wytschaete, Zonnebeke, Pilken and Passchendaele Ridges, the Canadians captured the last-mentioned after taking Meetchele Village in a notable preliminary action.

This fighting on the outposts of Flanders gave the Corps new reputation and the French press could not say too much of the initiative, persistence and cool courage shown. General Currie wrote Sir G. Perley on Nov. 7 that: "The situation was that certain tactical features had to be taken. Canadians were brought to do the job; so far they have done it mighty well." The Canadian Cavalry, chiefly Fort Garry Horse, which aided General Byng at Cambrai, performed some work on Nov. 20 which ranked with the best exploits of the kind in Empire history-one squadron charging

upon and capturing an enemy Battery and racing two miles into the enemy lines over infantry and other obstacles and then fighting its way back, or the 43 who remained did, through guns and soldiers to Masnières. At the close of the year the Canadian Corps was back at Lens. It may be added that the German troops facing Canadians at Vimy totalled 140,000 or 8 Divisions; that, according to General Byng, the prisoners taken were 5,000 and the artillery included 65 guns, 106 mortars and 126 machine guns. General Currie's explanation of the success as given in a letter to Col. E. G. Prior of Victoria (Colonist, June 7) was (1) supreme confidence in the men, (2) careful plans and study before attack, (3) splendid artillery training and support. War appointments of the year included Col. A. E. G. MacKenzie, D.S.O., of St. John as Brig.-General to command the 5th Brigade; Col. F. B. Black, ex-M.L.A., of Moncton as Brig.-General, with command of a Brigade; Brig.-Gen. E. W. B. Morrison, D.S.o., as Canadian Artillery Corps Commander in succession to Maj.-Gen. Burstall. In September Walter A. Willison was named as Canadian Press representative with the troops in succession to Stewart Lyon who had held the post about a year. The French Government presented to Canada and forwarded a collection of War trophies which Sir Robert Borden described in the Commons on Sept. 19; General Seeley, former Secretary for War and Commanding the Canadian Cavalry, lost his son in action; Lieut.-Col. J. H. Mitchell, D.S.O., C.M.G., was one of a British Staff Mission sent to Italy at the close of the year; the retirement of Brig.-Gen. Arch. H. Macdonell, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., from active service was another personal event of importance.

The Returned Much was done for the returned soldier in 1917; Soldier: Pen- there, still, however, was much to do. There were sions and the from 10,000 to 20,000 men in Canada during the year Hospital Commission; who (1) had returned to England from the Front The G.W.V.A. wounded or ill and, after a time of careful treatment, been found incapacitated for further service, and were brought home, (2) had been brought to Canada to be treated for wounds or disablement of a presumably permanent nature. There were, also, about 70,000 men who had been in khaki for a short time but were discharged before leaving the country for physical or other reasons or who had got to England and there were found to be unfitted for active service, or in a small minority of cases, were sent home for insubordination or personal offences. They were not a factor, as yet, but might some day develop difficulties. The returned soldier was at this time an Imperial problem as well as a Canadian one and a strong effort was organized in England to direct after-war emigration of soldiers, in concert with the Dominions, to the Empire rather than outside countries. The Standing Emigration Committee, of which the Duke of Marlborough was Chairman, and the Empire Land Settlement Committee (Earl Grey, Chairman), were elements in this work; the Australian constitution of a Government Board to direct local financial aid in the migration of soldiers from the Motherland was one result. The British Govern

ment appointed a Committee in February to consider and report on this question with Lord Tennyson as Chairman and the High Commissioners for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and Agents-General for six Australian States as members, and only one Canadian, J. Bruce Walker, Commissioner of Immigration, Winnipeg. He was selected, no doubt, by the Canadian Government and Sir George Perley did not accept a place on the Committee.

On Jan. 10-12 a Conference on this question was held between the Dominion and Provincial Governments at Ottawa as the result of a despatch from the British Government supporting the retention of emigrants within the Empire wherever possible. Land settlement plans for soldiers were discussed and legislation was, later on, presented to Parliament and approved. Preferential employment and technical education for returned men were also considered. The Imperial side of the question was to be taken up by the Premier when he went to England in the summer and, meanwhile, the subject was discussed in the Canadian Commons on Feb. 5 by F. F. Pardee and others on the basis of future demobilization of 400,000 soldiers and 300,000 munition workers. Sir Robert Borden in speaking divided the returned men into two classes-(1) those who, upon arrival in Canada, were retained under the care of the Military Hospitals Commission, placed in hospitals, in sanatoria, or in convalescent homes, and who continued to draw their pay and allowances and to be provided for; and (2) those who were discharged and as to whom it was the duty of the Federal and Provincial Governments to see that they had every opportunity for employment either in the occupations in which they were engaged before or in some other occupation. From Parliament the discussion passed to the country. W. J. Gage of Toronto took the practical step of donating $100,000 to provide comfortable homes at nominal rentals for the widows and children and other dependants of Canadian soldiers killed on active service; the Ontario Good Roads Association (Feb. 27) heard schemes for the employment of returned soldiers in highway construction; farm work was said to be insufficiently remunerative to keep the men and their families and to be neither permanent nor popular; the National Service Commission undertook to find the previous trade or calling of each man on service and Lord Shaughnessy at Montreal (Mar. 20) drew attention to the danger of putting soldiers into work or places for which they were unfitted. "I should," he added, "like to see thousands of them, not now highly skilled, given special training to equip them with the skill they lack. We have got to find out in detail what is best for the men-yes, and for each particular man, with his individual capacities and aptitudes."

This was, in reality, one of the chief objects of the Military Hospitals Commission, appointed by the Dominion Government in 1915, with Sir James Lougheed as Chairman and 16 other members, an ex-officio member from each of the nine Provinces appointed by the respective Governments and a subsidiary Committee in each Province. By the close of 1917 the Commission had 54 Military Convalescent Hospitals and 14 Sanatoria for the treatment of

Tuberculosis under its control. They were established at Sydney, Halifax, and Kentville in Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, P.E. Island, and Fredericton, River Glade and St. John in New Brunswick; at Quebec, Lake Edward, Montreal, Ste. Agathe and Ste. Anne de Bellevue in Quebec; at Kingston, Ottawa, Cobourg, Whitby, Toronto, Guelph, Newmarket, Hamilton, St. Catharines and London in Ontario; at Winnipeg and Ninette, Manitoba; at Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, and at Calgary, Edmonton and Frank in Alberta; at Victoria, Sidney, Qualicum, Vancouver, Balfour and Kamloops in British Columbia. The officers were S. A. Armstrong, Director, E. H. Scammell, Secretary, T. B. Kidner, Vocational Secretary, Lieut.-Col. A. Thompson, M.D., M.P., Medical Superintendent, and Lieut.-Col. J. J. Sharples, O.C. for the Commission. An important part of the Commission's duty was its system of re-education after discharge from the C.E.F. It appointed vocational officers for Ontario, the Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, in conjunction with the Provincial Employment Committees which represented the Provincial Governments. Disabled Soldiers' Training Boards and Provincial Advisory Committees on Training were also appointed. This latter body consisted of a member of the Provincial Committee, a vocational officer and a medical man. As to the Provincial Committees it was agreed by the Provinces to 'assume the responsibility of endeavouring to find employment for discharged soldiers, who, upon their return to Canada, are physically and otherwise fit to assume such employment." Up to the beginning of 1917 these Provincial Committees had obtained positions for 5,886 returned soldiers with only 148 reported as being still out of employment or unsuited.

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On May 8, 6,515 patients were in charge of the Commission and 20,600 Canadians were in English Hospitals. On Aug. 17 the former total was 8,811. There were four classes of patients dealt with in Canada: (1) the active cases requiring continuous medical attention, (2) the convalescent, (3) those suffering from Tuberculosis, (4) those suffering from special disorders such as shell-shock or rheumatism. According to Sir R. Borden in the Commons (Feb. 5) the Commission then had in operation, or under construction for these purposes, 16 hospitals or homes, with accommodation for 2,600 men in the 1st class; for class two 27 institutions, accommodating 4,700 men; for class three 18 institutions, with accommodation for 900 men; and for class four, four institutions with accommodation for 200 men. The number of men who had passed through the hands of the Commission was nearly 10,000. Details were worked out by this body with most minute pains and if its mechanism had been adjusted as carefully as its paper organization there should have been none of the friction or incidents of discomfort which did occasionally and inevitably develop. Complaints as to lack of accommodation developed early in the year and on Feb. 22 Col. Sharples told a Parliamentary Committee that 16,000 returned soldiers had passed through the receiving depôts at Quebec, St. John and Halifax with others arriving at the rate of 600 a month: "Up to this time it