Canada: The Land and the People

LETTERS IN CANADA: 1953 295 modest but very readable and at times thrilling account of his war career as a chaplain with the First Armoured Brigade and other units, chiefly in Sicily and Italy. The author's candid discussion of Dieppe, and his powerful vignette of a few hours in a Field Dressing Station during the batde for the Gothic Line, demonstrate his experience of army life and his comprehension of the soldier's point of view. He has a sharp eye for "human interest," but avoids sentimentality. His comments on the variety of personal problems which soldiers brought to their "Padres" are shrewd, instructive, and often moving. Best of all, he is thoroughly Canadian; although he likes Punch and is evidendy somewhat disconcerted by Americans, his book has none of that obsequious buttering-up of the English which has sometimes clogged "Canadian" writing. The stock American major, complete with cigar, is here, to be sure; but so is the "silly-ass" Englishman. Smith prefers Canadians, and he makes that preference clear without belligerence. The author's courageous and likeable personality is not the least attraction of this book. What Time the Tempest, we may hope, will point the way for other Canadians who want to write about their war. Dr. C. T. Bissell has contributed the following review of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, 1928-1953. (Hamilton, Regimental Headquarters, x, 407 pp.) This is an official regimental history, and as such it constitutes what is usually described as an "invaluable record." The peace-time prologue and epilogue will have no interest to general readers, and very litde to most of those who served with the regiment. The book is obviously by divers hands: the basis is the regimental diary upon which has been superimposed material drawn from the diaries of closely associated units and higher formations; finally, a diligent editorial process has added a note of factual sobriety. There still remain vestiges of an imaginative approach, in the descriptions, for instance, of the fantastic dream-like rush through undefended country after the crossing of the Seine, and there are excellent detailed accounts of engagements that are minor classics of infantry warfare: the taking of the German strong-point, Hill 195, in the advance from Caens to Falaise, and the river-crossing at Moerbrugge near Ghent. 5. Canada: The Land and the People J. M. S. CARELESS Under this heading, the most notable feature of the past year is the number of books that have to do with the region of Ontario. In fact, there is not much to report on for other parts of Canada. The relevant works for Ontario include a significant volume on archeo- 296 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY logical investigations in Huronia, an appreciative study of Upper Canada's principal literary pioneers, a monumental history of the town and port of Oakville, and an enthusiastic chronicle of mining development in the Sudbury district. And this does not exhaust the list. The most general work in this group is Ontario, by Marjorie Wilkins Campbell (Ryerson, x, 219 pp., $4). It follows the usual pattern of the travel book: tours through various sections of the province, describing the terrain, the products and prospects, with a few anecdotes thrown in, and side-glances at the local historical background. This is a superior performance, however. It covers the many aspects of this large and variegated province with clarity and conciseness, and yet with pleasing informality. It is only regrettable that a number of minor factual errors weaken the book as a whole. Simcoe is said to have built Fort York in 1749, which would be three years before his birth; Brock died in 18I 2 at Queenston, not 181 3-a small point, perhaps, but a rather standard date. Leamington was certainly not a haven for escaping American slaves in the early eighteenth century. Nor did Sir William Johnson ever inhabit "Chiefswood" at Brantford , having in any case died some ten years before the Brantford area was first settled. From this survey of the present province of Ontario we turn to the early history of the region with Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, (Oxford, xiii, 128 pp., $3...