I had an excellent point of vantage on a
little hill opposite the saluting base where the King and Lord
Kitchener stood. That review was the real thing. It lacked, perhaps,
something of the wildness of the review that took place on the sandy
plains of Valcartier, but it had a dignity that was very inspiring.
Only the division that was actually going across was reviewed. One
felt that it was the last review that many of the men were ever
destined to see and it seemed to be peculiarly fitting that before
they left for the field of battle they should see that figure,--the
head of the Empire--that stood for freedom and that intangible
something that had made them come thousands of miles to fight and,
perhaps, to die.
A young officer--Captain Klotz of the third battalion--of German
descent and a very fine boy,--sat with me and chatted for a while as
we watched the division march past. Although he was orderly officer of
his battalion he had not been able to resist the temptation to slip
away for the day to see a little of the march past. Poor chap! He was
killed at the second battle of Ypres three months afterwards. The
first Canadian division as it swung past was certainly a magnificent
spectacle and I was quite willing to agree with a General who told me
later in the day that though he had been at reviews for many years he
had never seen such a fine body of men in the whole of his career.
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