ride.

"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.

"You will remember the last time I spoke to you, just before you
went into the trenches at Sailly, now over two months ago, I told
you about my old regiment--the Royal West Kents--having gained a
reputation for not budging from the trenches, no matter how they
were attacked. I said then that I was quite sure that in a short
time the army out here would be saying the same of you. I little
thought--we, none of us thought--how soon those words would come
true. But now, to-day, not only the army out here, but all Canada,
all England, and all the Empire, is saying it of you.

"The share each unit has taken in earning this reputation is no
small one.

"I have three pages of congratulatory telegrams from His Majesty
the King downward which I will read to you, with also a very nice
letter from our army commander, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.

"Now, I doubt if any divisional commander, or any division ever
had so many congratulatory telegrams and messages as these, and
remember they are not merely polite and sentimental ones; they
express just what the senders feel.

"There is one word I would say to you before I stop. You have made
a reputation second to none gained in this war, but remember, no
man can live on his reputation, he must keep on adding to it. That
you will do so I feel just as sure as I did two months ago when I
told you that I knew you would make a