The Great War As I Saw It | Page 6

histories of the men
who had been so quickly drawn together. All were fast being shaken
down into their places, and I think the great lessons of unselfishness
and the duty of pulling together were being stamped upon the lives that
had hitherto been more or less at loose ends. I used to sit in the tents
talking long after lights were out, not wishing to break the discussion of
some interesting life problem. This frequently entailed upon me great
difficulty in finding my way back to my tent, for the evenings were
closing in rapidly and it was hard to thread one's way among the
various ropes and pegs which kept the tents in position. On one

occasion when going down the lines, I tripped over a rope. Up to that
moment the tent had been in perfect silence, but, as though I had fired a
magazine of high explosives, a torrent of profanity burst (p. 021) forth
from the inhabitants at my misadventure. Of course the men inside did
not know to whom they were talking, but I stood there with my blood
curdling, wondering how far I was personally responsible for the
language poured forth, and terrified lest anyone should look and find
out who had disturbed their slumbers. I stole off into the darkness as
quickly as I could, more than ever longing for a speedy termination of
the great war, and resolving to be more careful in future about tripping
over tent ropes.
We had church parades regularly now on Sundays and early
celebrations of the Holy Communion for the various units. Several
weeks had gone by and as yet we had no definite information from
General Hughes as to which or how many chaplains would be accepted.
It was very annoying. Some of us could not make satisfactory
arrangements for our parishes, until there was a certainty in the matter.
The question came to me as to whether I ought to go, now that the
Quebec men had been merged into a battalion of which I was not to be
the chaplain. One evening as I was going to town, I put the matter
before my friend Colonel, now General, Turner. It was a lovely night.
The moon was shining, and stretching far off into the valley were the
rows of white tents with the dark mountains enclosing them around.
We stood outside the farmhouse used as headquarters, which
overlooked the camp. When I asked the Colonel whether, now that I
was separated from my men, I ought to leave my parish and go, he said
to me, "Look at those lines of tents and think of the men in them. How
many of those men will ever come back? The best expert opinion
reckons that this war will last at least two years. The wastage of human
life in war is tremendous. The battalions have to be filled and refilled
again and again. Don't decide in a hurry, but think over what I have told
you." On the next evening when I returned from Quebec, I went to the
Colonel and said, "I have thought the matter over and I am going."
The time was now drawing near for our departure and at last word was
sent round that General Hughes wished to meet all the chaplains on the

verandah of his bungalow. The time set was the cheerful hour of five
a.m. I lay awake all night with a loud ticking alarm clock beside me, till
about half an hour before the wretched thing was to go off. With great
expedition I rose and shaved and making myself as smart as possible in
the private's uniform, hurried off to the General's camp home. There the
other chaplains were assembled, about twenty-five (p. 022) or thirty in
all. We all felt very sleepy and very chilly as we waited with
expectancy the utterance which was going to seal our fate. The General
soon appeared in all the magnificence and power of his position. We
rose and saluted. When he metaphorically told us to "stand easy", we
all sat down. I do not know what the feelings of the others were, but I
had an impression that we were rather an awkward squad, neither fish,
flesh, nor fowl. The General gave us a heart to heart talk. He told us he
was going to send us with "the boys." From his manner I inferred that
he looked upon us a kind of auxiliary and quite dispensable sanitary
section. I gathered that he did not want us to be very exacting as to the
performance of religious duties by the men. Rather we were to go in
and out amongst them, make friends of them and cheer them on their
way. Above all we were to remember