"As regards our comrades who have lost their lives, and we will
speak of them with our caps off [here the general took off his
cap, and all did likewise], my faith in the Almighty is such that
I am perfectly sure that, in fact, to die for their friends, no
matter what their past lives have been, no matter what they have
done that they ought not to have done (as all of us do), I repeat
that I am perfectly sure the Almighty takes care of them and looks
after them at once. Lads--we can not leave them better than like
that. [Here the general put his cap on, and all did the same.]

"Now, I feel that we may, without any false pride, think a little
of what the Division has done during the past few days. 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.