72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

CHAPTER VIII.THE SUMMER OF 17.Dominion Day, 1917 Move to Villers-au-Bois A bomb incidentMcLennan distinguishes himself Heroism of Lieut. J. B. Roseand Corp. R. C. Brown Working parties again rest at Chateaude la Haie Inter-Battalion sports The coming of winter-Reign of the bomb ended Proposed attack on Sallumines HillPasschendaele looms insight.DOMINION DAY, 1917! Fifty years from Confederation, and here were Canadians fighting for the honour and the security of their beloved land, that land onwhich the Hun had not only cast an envious eye, but whichhe was prepared to overrun and parcel-out under the direction of his myrmidons. Indubitably mistaken was GoldwinSmith when he wrote in his "Canada and the Canadian Question:" "Canada will never contribute to Imperial armaments. . . .Englandcan derive no militarystrength from a dependency 3000 miles away." What the"philosopher of the Grange" might have said at this particular juncture if he had been alive to witness it mustremain unknown. But his belief in his own presciencemight have been shaken could be have been on this dayat the Canadian front and have heard the three one-minutebursts of fire in which every gun in the Canadian Corpsco-operated !That night also marked the moving back of the 72nd fora period of rest at Villers-au-Bois. At the beginning ofit another welcome draft this time of 150 men was received from the 231st Battalion.66Reorganization and train-