Even as the Scottish clans
gathered of old the greater British clans were gathering now. It was
a great thing to see that in the beginning; it has comforted me many
a time since, in a black hour, when news was bad and the Hun was
thundering at the line that was so thinly held in France.
Here were free peoples, not held, not bound, free to choose their
way. Britain could not make their sons come to her aid. If they came
they must come freely, joyously, knowing that it was a right cause, a
holy cause, a good cause, that called them. I think of the way they
came--of the way I saw them rising to the summons, in New Zealand, in
Australia, later in Canada. Aye, and I saw more--I saw Americans
slipping across the border, putting on Britain's khaki there in
Canada, because they knew that it was the fight of humanity, of
freedom, that they were entering. And that, too, gave me comfort
later in dark times, for it made me know that when the right time
came America would take her place beside old Britain and brave France.
New Zealand is a bonnie land. It made me think, sometimes, of the
Hielands of Scotland. A bonnie land, and braw are its people. They
made me happy there, and they made much of me.
At Christchurch they did a strange thing. They were selling off, at
auction, a Union Jack--the flag of Britain. Such a thing had never
been done before, or thought of. But here was a reason and a good
one.
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