"A hurried line to tell you that, while I feel most keenly your heavy losses, I cannot sufficiently express to you my humble thanks for the gallantry and devotion shewn by your Battalion yesterday under your leadership. If you have a moment, let me know any details of losses. I cannot come to see you, or, needless to say, I would. I may say that the Corps C.O. says the Division has, it is hoped, saved Arras, and I know that the 7th Cameron Highlanders bore the hardest share of the fight.
"Yours ever,
"H. L. REED."
From the G.O.C. 44th Brigade:—
"My dear Colonel,
"I wish to send my sincerest congratulations and to thank you, and all ranks under your leadership, for the grand work done during the whole of this last tour of two months, which culminated in the gallant fight put up by your Battalion on the 28th, and I consider that it was entirely due to this fight that the 15th Division was practically saved from destruction, or, at any rate, an ignominous retreat. I would like you to convey to all ranks of your Battalion my sincerest sympathy with them in the great struggle. The Divisional Commander to-day, in expressing his thanks for the work of the 44th Brigade, in all sincerity told me that your work has saved Arras.
"Yours very sincerely,
"EDWARD HILLIAM."
Copy telegram G.O.C. XVII. Corps to G.O.C. 15th Division, dated 29th March:—
"I knew you could be relied on to stick it out to the end. There are fresh troops now in support of you, but I want the honour of holding Arras to be yours alone."
The Battalion was now reduced in numbers to one Company, made up mostly from the reserves at the Transport lines which had been left out of the trenches. Consequently we had one Company of the 9th Gordons attached to us, and three days later (1st April) we were again holding the trenches in rear of the intermediate Army line, which we started to put in a state of defence. We soon received drafts, which began to increase our strength, but there were no officers with them. One fully realises the difficulties with which the Staff had to contend, and the last thing anyone wants to do is to reflect in any way on their hard work and wonderful organisation. At the same time, we feel that the system of posting officers and men at the Base was not the best that could have been devised. This was brought home to us on this occasion. We were very short of officers, and on the Division asking for drafts we were informed that there were no Cameron officers available, and that if we insisted on having officers we would have to take them from other units, a thing the C.O. always objected to. Within a few days we received a letter from an officer with the home Battalion who was anxious to try and get re-posted to the 7th. In his letter he stated that there was such an enormous number of officers with the Reserve Units they could hardly find room to put them all up! The letter was brought to the notice of the Division, and the result was that in a very short time we had a draft of Cameron officers on their way to us.