(_November, 1918_)
Some of you have already commenced, while others are about to march
on the Rhine, liberating Belgium in your advance. In a few days you
will enter Germany and hold certain parts, in order to secure the
fulfilment of the terms of the armistice preliminary to the peace
treaty. The rulers of Germany, humiliated and demoralized, have fled.
That unscrupulous nation, who in 1914 set at naught every treaty and
violated every moral obligation, who has since perpetrated the most
ferocious atrocities on land as well as on sea, is beaten, famished,
and at our mercy. Justice has come. Retribution commences. During
four long years, conscious of the righteousness of your cause, you
have fought many battles and endured cruel hardships, and now your
mighty efforts are rewarded. Your fallen comrades are avenged. You
have demonstrated on the battle-field your superior courage and
unfaltering energy. By the will of God you have won, won, won, marching
triumphantly through Belgium. You will be received everywhere as
liberators, but the kindness and generosity of the population must not
cause any relaxation of your discipline or alertness. Your task is
not yet completed, and you must remain what you are--a close-knitted
army in grim, deadly earnest. German agents scattered throughout
the country must not be able to report to their German masters any
weakness or evidence of disintegration of your fighting power. It is
essential that on the march and at the halt discipline must be of the
highest standard. Every possible protection should be taken at all
times to guard against hostile acts by organized bodies, and to lessen
the possibilities, always present, of isolated murders or desperate
guerilla acts by factions of the enemy. Above all, it is of capital
importance to establish in Germany the sense of your overwhelming
moral and physical standing, so as to complete by the presence of your
potential strength the victories you have won on the battle-field. All
external signs of discipline must be insisted upon, and the example in
this, as in all instances, must come from the leaders.
Clothing and equipment must be, if possible, spotless, well kept, and
well put on. Badges and distinguishing marks must be complete, while
the transport should be as clean as the circumstances will allow. In
short, you must continue to be, and appear to be, that powerful-hitting
force which has won the fear and respect of your foes and the
admiration of the world.
It is not necessary to say that the population and private property
will be respected. You will always remember that you fought for
justice, right, and decency, and that you cannot afford to fall short
of these essentials, even in the country against which you have every
right to feel bitter.
Rest assured that the crimes of Germany will receive adequate
punishment. Attempts will be made, by insidious propaganda, to
undermine the source of your strength; but you, the soldier citizens of
the finest and most advanced democracy in the world, will treat such
attempts with the contempt they deserve. You know that self-imposed,
stern discipline has made you the hardest, most successful, and
cleanest fighters of this war. Beginning by the immortal stand at the
second battle of Ypres, you befittingly closed by the capture of Mons
your fighting record, in which every battle you fought is a resplendent
page of glory. I trust you, and the people at home trust you, while the
memory of your dead comrades demands of you to bring back that glorious
record, pure and unsullied, to Canada.
ARTHUR W. CURRIE,
Lieut.-Gen. Commanding Canadian Corps