genius for modern war. It was a pleasure just to see him revise a
Divisional plan of action. He had a hawk eye for any weak spots and he
pointed them out. No doubt some of the stuff that got through to the
boys in some of the shows shortly after Currie took command was Byng
stuff, and Byng sure handed over a fine army to Currie. But believe
me, Currie had his own programme and picked his own men and developed
his own machine shortly after. And I don't believe there was a
commander in any of the Corps on that Front that had anything on him
for what makes an army win."

The General's return to Canada was preheralded by a barrage of
criticism that seeped through from men coming home. Some day we shall
know how much or how little of this was politics inspired by Currie's
enemies in Canada and by men who, jealous of his success and his
eminence, had no scruples about fomenting the criticism. But Currie
must be judged by what he did with his army. In that last hundred days
all the armies but the American army were remnants of what they were in
1915. The wonderful thing about the Canadian army is that in the three
months before victory it was an even more terrible arm of war than it
had been at Vimy Ridge. After a year and a half of Commander Currie it
was still the superb fighting machine described in the extracts already
quoted from the battle of Amiens. For a few of the reasons why it was
so we quote again that same book the writer's estimate of Currie:

"But according to the letter of the law he is not a good subordinate.
He cannot be popular with the powers that be: he is always complaining
about something; getting his own way or making it unpleasant for people
if he doesn't.

"In the panic of the following March (1918 after Passchendaele) he
finds the Corps is being torn to pieces, its divisions hurried here,
there and everywhere; orders given and countermanded and then issued
again. He protests strongly; the Canadian corps whose value is tested,
must be kept together; and he wins out." . . .

"Is all this insubordination? If so, it is a quality that makes for
victory. The average Canadian is always willing to "take a chance"
because he has confidence in himself. And the Corps Commander is very
much of a Canadian."

The author does not criticize Currie, though he had so good an
opportunity. In telling so well the wonderful story of that last
hundred days and so explicitly glorifying the Commander w