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Lest we forge How the Legion came into being Although the Great War finished in its effects lingered long after especially for veterans In Canada as elsewhere economic difficulties presented problems for many returned men Mutual distrust arose between officers and other ranks The existing legislation and the administrative machinery could not solve the pro blems of those who had served Many veterans groups thus sprang up but the circumstances demanded a united organization field Marshal Haig Com mander of the British Empires forces on the Western Front and Sir Richard Turner a Canadian soldier helped inspire the creation of such an organization A unity convention met at Winnipeg in November 1925 and most existing groups merged to form the Canadian Legion which in I960 by royal assent became The Royal Canadian Legion The founders decided to stand for peace with strength and for loyalty to Canada the Empire and the Monarchy The Legion was to safeguard veterans and their dependents to protect the families of the fallen and to make sure that wartime sacrifices would be remembered Despite these intentions certain individuals believed that because the group denied membership to anarchists and communists a strongarmed fascist movement was in the making However the rumours did not persist and with Saskatchewan veterans in the vanguard the membership of most former servicemens groups flocked to the legion Legions prime concern has always been veterans and their dependents Money from poppy sales aids such people when they are in distress The organization has helped thousands to press claims for government benefits and has lobbied for improved veterans legislation As early as April the group sought amendments to the Pensions Act the Soldier Set tlement Act and the Civil Service Superannuation Act Such efforts procured assistance unheard of following the First World War for people being discharged after the Second The Legion tried to make miliary life more pleasant During World War Canadian Legion War Services provided members of the forces with recreation personal guidance and oppor tunities for education The edu cational programs produced better soldiers sailors and airmen prepared military personnel for civilian life and prevented boredom in the long winter nights Some credit this program with raising literacy rates in parts of Canada Beyond concern for the veteran the Legion has a sense of public duty In the organization of fered child rearing advice The Legions first national convention wanted to develop a spirit of Empire to offset dangerous foreign activities Before and during World War the organization fought complacency More recently the group has sought reform in various fields and has provided many community services for instance there are hundreds of places in Canada where the Legion Hall is the only social centre In Flanders Fields In I landers I Ids the puppies blow Between therows row mi row That mark our plat i and the v Vie larks stilt singing Scan heard the gum below We are the Dead Short days ago We In felt dawn saw sunset glow Loved and were and now we lie in fields Take up our quarrel with the foe To vou from falling hands we throw Tlic ton h he ours to hold it high break faith with us who die We shall not though poppies grow In I binders fields Re an Lost million Canada population the made its this country Although the poppy certain of how I the poppy with dead The not new when adopted in timeacorres thickly poppies graves speaking of ind its Hut a was chiefly association mo known fa John McCrae Canadian Med An Boor War he miner the the line at Ypr That enemy first The first at the next and the and nights the at after wave of a During this wrote One can there on the f places where anattacktheyl slopes of the Working from on the bank of we forget on and their cy from poppy people when they The organization usands to press benefits for improved 1926 the group ments to the the Soldier Set- Civil Service Act Such efforts unheard of World War for after the tried to make pleasant During Canadian Legion members of with recreation ance and cation The better rs and airmen personnel for ana prevented the long winter edit this program racy rates in parts for the veteran a sense of public organization of- advice The Uonal convention elop a spirit of offset dangerous ties Before and War II the t complacency the group has various fields and many community there are laces in Canada Hall is the only In Flanders Fields In Flanders the poppies blow Between row on row mark our plat and in the The larks still tinging flv Scarce heard amid guns below We are the Dead Short davs ago We lived felt dawn saw sunset glow Loved and were loved and now we lie In Flanders fields Take up our quarrel with the foe To you from falling hands we throw Tlic torch he vours to hold it high break faith us who die We shall not sleep though poppies grow In Flanders fields Remembrance and the poppy November six and a half million poppies bloomed in Canada Dotting the lapels of almost onethird of Canadas population the symbol of Remem brance made Its 38th appearance in this country Although everybody knowB what the poppy means nobody is certain of how it all began of now the poppy became so closely assoc iated with remembrance of the war dead The association was certainly not new when the poppy was adopted in Canada in At least a hundred and ten years before that time a correspondent wrote of how thickly poppies grew over the graves of the dead He was speaking of the Napoleonic War and its campaigns in Flanders But a Canadian medical officer was chiefly responsible for this association more so than any other single known factor John was a tall boyish yearold member of the Canadian Medical Corps from An artillery veteran of the Boer War he had the eye of a gunner the hand of a surgeon and the soul of a poet when he went into the line at on April 1915 That was the afternoon the enemy first used poison gas The first attack failed So did the next and the next For days and nights the allies repulsed wave after wave of attackers During this period McCrae wrote One can see the dead lying there on the front field And in places where the enemy threw in an attack they lie very thick on the slopes of the German trenches working from a dressing station on the bank of the Yser Canal McCrae dressed hundreds of wounded never taking off his clothes for the entire 17 days Sometimes the dead or wounded rolled down the bank from above into his dugout Sometimes while awaiting the arrival of batches of wounded he would watch the men at work in the burial plots which were quickly filling up Then McCrae and his unit were relieved We are weary In body and wearier in mind The general impression In my mind one of a nightmare he wrote home But came out of Ypres with 13 lines scrawled on a of paper The lines were a poem which started In Flanders fields the poppies blow These were the lines which are enshrined in the hearts of soldiers who heard in them their innermost thoughts was their voice The poem circulated as a folk song circulates by living word of mouth Men learned It with their hearts In the United States the poem inspired the American Legion to adopt the poppy as the symbol of Remembrance in Canada the poppy was adopted by the Great War Veterans Association in on the suggestion of a Mrs Guerin of France But there is little doubt that the poem influenced this decision The poem speaks of Flanders fields But the subject is universal the fear of the dead that they will be forgotten that their death will have been in vain The spirit of true Remem brance as symbolized by the must be the eternal answer belies those fears poppy which