THE YPRES TIMES
221
CORRESPONDENCE.
Secretary Ypres League, London, W.i.
Dear Sir, APril 24th, I93L
We are forwarding this letter to you by the
first AustraliaEngland Experimental Air Mail
Service to leave Australia for England. This
mail leaves Brisbane on April 25th and, according
to Australian time, is due at London on May
14th.
April 25th is Australia's national day, known
as Anzac Day," and it is somewhat of a
coincidence that this mail leaves Brisbane at
daybreak, synchronizing with the landing of the
Australian troops at Gallipoli at daybreak on
the morning of April 25th, 1915.
We desire to convey our compliments to the
President, Committee and members of the
Ypres League, and assure you that the best
wishes of our Queensland comrades accompany
this letter.
Throughout every city, town and village in
Australia meetings and services will be held in
commemoration of ex-service men who fell in
the Great War, and undoubtedly in this respect
the Ypres Salient features most prominently.
We trust that the inauguration of this All-
Air Mail route to England will further bind the
ties of Empire between the Commonwealth and
the Mother Country.
With best wishes, Yours sincerely,
G. LawsonEN' J°int Hon' Secretaries-
Queensland Representatives, Ypres League.
The Editor, The Ypres Times,"
London, England. June 6th, 1931.
Dear Sir,
I have received my first copy of The Ypres
Times, and wish to take this opportunity to
express my appreciation of that excellent
publication.
I am a Canadian, an ex-member of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force. From Halifax
to Vancouver and from the Great Lakes to the
Arctic the name Ypres is held sacred by all
Canadians. There is hardly a home in Canada
which cannot boast of the proud fact that he
died at Ypres."
The history of the Canadian Corps from 1915
onward is the history of The Salient." From
the time of their first engagement in the first
battles of Ypres until the end of the struggle
the major portion of the Salient was held by
this Corps. True there were excursions to
other parts of the Western Front, as well as to
Russia, but we always came back to the Salient.
Proof of this are the cemeteries from Kemmel
to Steenstraat, ringing that land of death, which
contains, amongst other well-known places,
Saint Eloi, Hill 60, Voormezelle, Zillebeke,
Saint Julien, Langemarck, Hooge, Gravenstafel,
and the immortal city of Ypres, with enduring
monuments of stone, mute testimony of the
response of the maple leaf men to the call of
the Motherland.
The war, which brought in its wake misery,
suffering and death, also brought its lesson of
England and Empire. There were many
Canadians (myself included) who, before the
war, regarded England as just another place
on the map; distant, far enough away so as
to be almost mythical. I can recall an entry
in my diary made the day after we landed in
England. It is this. I feel that already any
sacrifice which I may be called upon to make
will not be made in vain. Yesterday, putting
foot on English soil for the first time, I felt
as though I were home." Love of country I
knew before, but I feel safe in saying that love
of Empire, which is a greater love, one does
not know until one has the privilege of feeling
the heart of this great Empire of ours.
I was eighteen then, but since that day, and
although much older and much more Canadian
now, my love of England and Empire has
grown.
The Ypres Association has a definite part in
this Empire of ours. The Salient was a proving
ground of British and Dominion troops alike.
It witnessed a common sacrifice for a common
cause. Its deadEnglish, Scottish, Irish,
Indian, Canadian, and Australianare buried
side by side, the riven trees of Sanctuary Wood
brood over them, the bugle from the Menin
Gate calls to them, understanding, if not for-
getfulness. The association in keeping their
memory fresh in those who have survived and
in those who came after will be an enduring
link which will keep the chain of Empire intact.
Again thanking you, and with very best
wishes for the continued success of the Ypres
League,
Yours truly, Harry W. Hiltz, Capt.
Ringsport, King's Co., Nova Scotia.
Secretary Ypres League. June 2nd, 1931.
Dear Sir,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter
dated May 27th, 1931, stating that, on perusal
of your records, you find I have allowed
my membership subscription to the League to
lapse, and that every lapsed member is a matter
of grave concern to you.
I observe you fully appreciate the difficulty of
maintaining subscriptions of any kind during
these days of industrial depression.
I have given your letter my earnest con
sideration, and as you say you look forward to
welcome me again, I have decided to renew my
subscription to the League, the aims and objects
of which have always claimed my sympathy, if
not support.
I hope to have an opportunity at some future
date of visiting the battlefields again and places
which I was once familiar with, and I may wish
to enlist your kind assistance upon that occa
sion, whenever it may be.
I have filled in your enclosed renewal form,
and have pleasure in forwarding my subscrip
tion of five shillingsa postal order for that
amount.
Believe me, yours truly, F. E. D.
