THE DEFENCE OF YPRES

The British are not a phrase-making people and their stubborn defence of Ypres has not been illuminated by a slogan, like "They shall not pass," the battlecry at Verdun which set France aflame. But in a less spectacular way their struggle around the ancient Flanders town symbolizes the British tradition in the war as the struggle for the Douamont and Vaux fortresses and Dead Man's Hill symbolizes the tradition of the French. It was at Ypres in November, 1914, that the British regulars, the "Old Contemptibles" of the gallant first expeditionary force, stemmed the German attack led by the crack regiments of the Prussian Guard and beat them back with terrific losses. It was at Ypres in April, 1915, that the First Canadian Division beat off the first gas attack and, in the words of General French, "saved the situation". Behind the city, under a grove of Canadian maples, lie six thousand of Canada's bravest sons, her first contribution in the Great War to the defence of the mother country. And now on the slopes about the shell-torn city stand England's own sons, gathered in the divisions of England's volunteer and conscript army. Commanders may debate the strategic value of the city as they did at Verdun, but the events of the last two weeks prove that if it is evacuated it will not be because of the defection of the British soldiers. Regardless of the loss of the Passchendaele Ridge before the city and the Wytschaete Ridge with Kemmel Hill on its south flank, the English battalions have matched German blow with British blow, German gain with British gain in the immediate environs of the city, and seem able to keep the Hun indefinitely from the Belgian city hallowed by so much British blood until the higher command shall order their advance or withdrawal.