On his return to Headquarters the Prime Minister was invited to take part in a conference with the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief and his Staff. Among those present was his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
It had been arranged that Sir Robert's visit to the French armies—a visit most courteously and even pressingly suggested by the French Government—should take place on the conclusion of the conference at General Headquarters.
Sir Robert was received at a small town, which it would be indiscreet to name, by General Joffre. The famous General, who was full of confidence and hope, was surrounded by one of the most brilliant staffs which any army in the world could boast. For a long time he discussed with the most charming frankness, and the most lucid explanations, the position and the prospects of the Allied forces in the field.
The French Staff was most anxious to enlarge upon their plans in conversation with the Prime Minister. It was interesting, indeed, to an observer of Canadian birth, to listen to the animated conversation carried on entirely in French. What reflections did the interview not suggest? The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of France in conference with the Prime Minister of Canada in the throes of a mighty war! Jacques Cartier, Frontenac, De Levis, De Salaberry, Wolfe, Montcalm, the Heights of Abraham, the far-flung antagonism of the great French and British nations—how many memories crowded the mind as one silently watched this historic interview! And, of all reflections, perhaps the most insistent was that the bitterest antagonisms of mankind may be composed in a period relatively very brief.
After a long day in the French trenches, varied by visits to advanced observation posts, from which the Prime Minister could plainly see the German front-line trenches, the party returned through the stricken city of Albert. The majestic fabric of its ancient cathedral has been smitten with a heavy hand. There remain only a scarred and desolate ruin, and the figure of the Madonna—a true Mater Dolorosa—hung suspended in mid-air from the mutilated spire.
And so to Paris, with minds saddened indeed by all the misery and the havoc and the horror, but still full of confidence that right shall yet conquer wrong, that a period shall yet be assigned to that bloody and calculated savagery which has swept ever so many fair provinces in Europe, and has not yet abandoned the hope of dominating the world.
The rest of the week was spent with the Government in Paris and in discussion with the French President and the Minister of War. Here again Sir Robert met with the most distinguished kindness. Nothing promising or unpromising in the prospects of the Allies was concealed from him, and on his departure from Paris the First Citizen of France conferred upon the First Citizen of Canada the highest order of the Legion of Honour.
After a visit on the way home to the great Canadian Base Hospital, over which Colonel Bridges, an officer of the Permanent Force, presides, and in which Major Keenan, of Montreal and of the Princess Patricias, gives his services, the party reached Boulogne on Sunday, and were carried back to English soil again.
Monday morning was spent in visiting the great hospital at Shorncliffe, which is under the direction of Colonel Scott, of Toronto. Everywhere one noticed in the hospitals the same cheerfulness, the same patience under suffering, and the same unaffected pleasure at the visit of the Prime Minister.
In the late afternoon the Prime Minister arrived at the Canadian Convalescent Home, where troops are gathered from all the hospitals in England, either to return in due course to duty or leave for ever the military service. This wonderful organisation is under the direction of Captain McCombe. The institution—so largely his creation—is a shining example of what such a home can become under intelligent and humane direction.