The newspaper clipping is transcribed in full.
THE FIGHTING CANADIANS
"In this prolonged and bitter struggle, now crowned with victory, the Army of Canada has played a stirring part ... We have reached the time hen the great and gallant company which has formed the 1st Canadian Army is about to dissolve ... I believe
the future of Canada rests in their hands. It will be a grand future should they be given the opportunity in peace to prove and practice the admirable characteristics they have demonstrated in war."
Thus has Gen. H. D. G. Crerar said "Thanks" to his men. By the modesty of his words, the commander of the 1st Canadian Army has bared his own great pride and deep affection for his troops. Through its modesty that message reveals much of the character
and quality of the leadership of Gen. Crerar. No soldier has served this nation and her fighting men more competently, more diligently and wisely, or fought with them to greater glory.
In their thanks to Gen. Crerar and his "team" the Canadians need not practice the same restraint. We have no cause to conceal the pride their achievements have stirred in us all. They have indeed played a "stirring part" in a magnificent victory. They
have fought in and measured up to the traditions of those heroes of an earlier struggle for freedom. For most of the war, they have fought in the select company of Britain's and America's finest, and, in the words of their commander, "they have never
spared themselves," nor failed to accomplish the tasks assigned to them, "however difficult."
If their rejoicing in the war's triumphant ending seems "stilled" to us here, we might ponder the cause of their restraint. The end came as no dramatic climax to our troops. They have seen it tumbling towardsd them for days, even weeks, i the rapid, almost
pathetic disintegration of the enemy. They do not have to be told of the terrible tyranny they have dethroned. They have seen it all in its wickedness. They have toiled through blood and death to grapple with it. They have seen friends and comrades --
young Canadians from the offices, the factories, the shops, the farms and schools, like themselves fall in payment for the freedom they return to. Theirs was to sow, that we might reap.
It was in keeping with these sobering realities of victory that Gen. Crerar, in the mood and spirit of his men, spoke with such feeling of their future. They possess "tremendous assets (for) the making of a great nation." No men have given more "to assure
the life and growth of democratic government in the world." It is to its development in Canada that their commander urges them to turn those "admirable characteristics they have demonstrated in war." What he asks, in their name, is only that Canada "give
them the opportunity to prove and practice" those qualities in the freed development of our national destiny. If the spirit of our celebrating be genuine, and our thanks sincere, we can do no less.
