s population. The
Commissioner's words are that "the benefits will be reaped by posterity
when the Force has disappeared and its work is forgotten." It is hard to
get these policemen to estimate their work highly enough. They have the
usual British reticence intensified by definite practise of it, and that
is why no man who has been a member of the Force will ever give a true
history of its achievements. He is afraid to give the Force its due lest
he should seem to be boastful when he records deeds that are stranger
than fiction. And so when the Commissioner speaks of the Force
disappearing and its work being forgotten we must enter a protest
against this being read except in the light of the well-known habit of
these men to keep religiously far away from the braggart spirit. The
Force has undergone changes and may ultimately disappear in so far as
the present form of organization is concerned, but those of us who have
known the country and the men all through the years affirm without
reservation that it can never be forgotten. The work of the corps has
been so indelibly stamped upon the history of Canada that the record can
never be erased as long as this country endures.

How, for instance, can any country forget a Force concerning one of
whose members this same Commissioner Perry, proud always of his men,
writes in the very next paragraph, "To one who is unacquainted with the
country it is difficult to convey any adequate idea of the labour
involved in policing such a vast region and carrying out the
multifarious duties imposed on us. As an instance of this I may mention
the work done by Corporal Field last winter. He is stationed at Fort
Chippewyan, Athabasca. He was informed that a man had gone violently
insane at Hay River, 350 miles from his post. He proceeded there with
dog train, accompanied by the interpreter only and brought the
unfortunate man, who was a raving maniac, back to Fort Chippewyan, and
thence escorted him to Fort Saskatchewan, travelling a distance of 1,300
miles with dogs and occupying forty-four days on the journey. This is
not an isolated instance. It represents the work of Inspector West and
his men in the Northern Country."

All this is written by the Commissioner with the most admirable and
characteristic police restraint. He gives the facts in outline and
leaves the rest to the imagination of those who know the country. He
says nothing about Corporal (later Inspector) Field having just co