From the News

Sir Hall Caine Pays Tribute to Canucks

Calgary Herald Published: July 9, 1919

Although largely forgotten today, Sir Hall Caine was a very popular British writer in the late 1800's, early 1900's. His letter to the London Daily Telegraph was in response to the negative press that the Canadian troops were receiving after the Kinmel Park Riots in March, 1919.

Dated: July 9, 1919

Sir Hall Caine Pays Tribute to Canucks

Defends Troops Against Attacks by Powerful Section of Press

London, July 8 – Sir Hall Caine, the well known novelist, occupies over a column of the Daily Telegraph today with a defense of the Canadian troops against a “small but powerful section of the British press now doing its best, or worst, willingly or unwillingly, to separate Canada from the mother country.”

He deplores certain excesses and recalls numerous reports of outrages which were manifest falsehoods. For exceptions to good behavior, he pleaded extenuating circumstances, chiefly the bitter disappointment of delayed repatriation, losses to business and the mischief of idleness. Everything considered, he thinks we must be thankful that the conduct of the overseas troops has been so good.

He pays a glowing tribute to Canada’s devotion to the Empire and to the splendid achievements of the war, and declared that the British press and the public as a whole are profoundly conscious of the Empire’s debt to Canada and have given to the recent unfortunate incidents only their proper value.

Transcribed by: marc