back into the earth. There will be a time, maybe, in the his?
tory of liberty and democracy, when no, Canadian will have a
more honored place ‘than these Canadians who have gone to
the help of strange but brave people most unjustly and savagely
assailed, ' s

y “In their -consciousness. of their fellowship with the
patriots of ’37, these Canadians have called themselves the
Mackenzie’Papi,n€au,-Battalion of 1 the International   Brigade,
and most rightly a. society calling itself the Friends of the. Mac:
kenzie»Papineau_Battalion has been formed in Toronto to do
what can be done for thecomfort of these.” , . .    ,

‘This tribute was written upon the occasion of a mass
meeting held in Toronto to commemorate the death of eight
Canadian boys who had died in Spain. Since then that eight
has grown to ,near.,ly_fift:y, and the five hundred ‘A has grown to
1,000 _Canadians_in Spain,     d I , ~ . d

A. :E. Smith has writtena graphic narrativeof his visit
to Spain which completes this pamphlet and itis difficult for
me to know whatttooffer in an introduction.

I have seen? the ‘boys in the line, under fire,«in the hospi»
tals; I have talked with themlandhave learned to know them.

Some of them went» through indescribable difficulties- to
come to Spain. «Hiking over the Pyrenees  vwayof treacheiv
ous paths to draw the comment from one of them", “Mountains
cannot stop us," a    I r ' 1 

They used to tell _me to make sure that whenl ‘wrote I
would not depict them as heroes‘, dtthati I, would make sure’ I to

show the horror of war,’ what it did toipeoiple, how insaneiit

was, and they wanted me to tell the people back home why
they came “here‘and’why even mountains couldnot stop them.

I happeneddtci  preseritin pa dugout when the boys first
7t'houghti,of"the‘i_ name for their battalion, Many names ilwiere
suggested.‘ Therewere heated discussions. One of them beck»
oned* for silence and said, ” ‘,‘If we know why we arejhere, if

we know that fighting’ i_foridemocracy,' really fighting 1for_,

mocracy, is only carrying on the traditions of our country and
__._, 4 ._