I would
first of all tell you that I have never been so proud of anything
in my life as I am of this armlet '1 Canada' on it that I wear on
my right arm. I thank you and congratulate you from the bottom of
my heart for the part each one of you has taken in giving me this
feeling of pride.
"I think it is possible that you do not, all of you, quite realize
that if we had retired on the evening of the twenty-second of
April when our Allies fell back from the gas and left our flank
quite open, the whole of the Seventeenth and Twenty-eighth
Divisions would probably have been cut off, certainly they would
not have got away a gun or a vehicle of any sort, and probably not
more than half the infantry. This is what our commander-in-chief
meant when he telegraphed as he did: 'The Canadians undoubtedly
saved the situation.' My lads, if ever men had a right to be proud
in this world, you have.
"I know my military history pretty well, and I can not think of an
instance, especially when the cleverness and determination of the
enemy is taken into account, in which troops were placed in such a
difficult position; nor can I think of an instance in which so
much depended on the standing fast of one division.
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