A very distinguished French general, speaking of the part that Canada was playing in the war, said, “Nothing in the history of the world has ever been known quite like it. My countrymen are fighting within fifty miles of Paris, to push back and chastise a vile and leprous race, which has violated the chastity of beautiful France, but the Australians at the Dardanelles and the Canadians at Ypres, fought with supreme and absolute devotion for what to many must have seemed simple abstractions, and that nation which will support for an abstraction the horror of this war of all wars will ever hold the highest place in the records of human valor.” The Fourth Canadian Division reached the Ypres region in August, 1916, just as the other three Canadian divisions were leaving for the Somme battlefield farther south. For a while it occupied part of the line near Kemmel, but soon followed the other divisions to the Somme, there to complete the Canadian corps. It may be stated here that though a fifth Canadian division was formed and thoroughly trained in England, it never reached France. Canada until the passing of the Military Service Act on July 6, 1917, depended solely on voluntary enlistment. Up to that time Canada, with a population of less than 9,000,000 had recruited 525,000 men by voluntary methods. Of this number 356,986 had actually gone overseas. Voluntary methods at last, however, failed to supply drafts in sufficient numbers to keep up the strength of the depleted reserves in England, and in consequence conscription was decided upon. By this means, 56,000 men were drafted in Canada before the war ended. In the meantime, through heavy fighting the demand for drafts became so insistent that the Fifth Canadian Division in England had to be broken up to reinforce the exhausted fighting divisions in France. It would be an incomplete summary of Canada’s part in the war that did not mention some of the men who have been responsible for the success of Canadian arms. It is obviously impossible to mention all of those responsible; it is even harder to select a few. But looking backward one sees two figures that stand forth from all the rest--General Sir Sam Hughes in Canada, and General Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian corps. To General Sir Sam Hughes must be given the credit of having foreseen war with Germany and making such preparations as were possible in a democracy like Canada. He it was of all others who galvanized Canada into action; he it was whose enthusiasm and driving power were so contagious that they affected not only his subordinates but the country at large. [Illustration: _Official Canadian War Records._ “TIME’S UP! OVER YOU GO!”