Something of the spirit of the Canadians in sharing the common sacrifice is reflected in the beautiful though poignant lines of Colonel Macrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, who himself made the supreme sacrifice in one of the early engagements of 1915:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Beneath the crosses, row on row That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you, from falling hands, we throw The torch. Be yours to lift it high! If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies blow In Flanders fields.
As for those at home, now that the war has passed into the ages-long annals of the Empire, no words can express their thoughts better than those of Laurence Binyon at the entrance of the British Museum in London, England:
They shall grow not old As we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn, At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them.
But the years 1914-20 were constructive ones for Canada. Hitherto she had been content to be { 467} regarded as a Dominion with a definite place in the Empire, proud of her position in that Association of Nations but not unmindful of her shortcomings. The world-conflict, however, caused her to realise her own constructive ability and possibilities only limited by population. Under the Imperial Munitions Board factories were converted into munition works, old plants were enlarged, and new machinery installed, so that the country is industrially equipped to supply a population considerably larger than it is to-day. Not only was wooden ship building revived, but also steel ship building plants were laid down. As a result there is a Government Merchant Marine arranged in conjunction with the Government railways, sailing the high seas to wherever Canadian produce can find a market. Closer international relationships are being fostered instead of considered as outside of the Dominion's power and her desire. These cords of commerce will undoubtedly strengthen British hegemony in the years to come.