Arthur Douglas Crease Letters, Diaries and Scrapbooks
Letters from Arthur Douglas Crease of Victoria to his brother Lindley Crease and his mother Sarah Crease; instructions for the offensive of July 26, 1917; a regimental notebook, diaries and scrapbook. Learn more.
*All transcriptions are provided by volunteers, and the accuracy of the transcriptions is not guaranteed. Please be sure to verify the information by viewing the image record, or visiting the BC Archives in person.
BC Archives MS-0055; BC Archives MS-2879
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carry out the role of a conquering army but it is rather hard where the people are so subservient & anxious to obey all orders. However the Army publishes all sort of proclamations & the town criers cry them through the streets. We arrest everyone out after 7 pm & everyone without a pass. We disarm everybody & make everyone salute our officers. We requisition whatever is necessary but we absolutely forbid & punish all looting. Later on when we reach the Rhine & the industrial centres we expect more trouble & there I shall probably act as a stipendiary magistrate to try civilians for war crimes & shall also sit on a permanent military court for trying more serious cases of the same kind. And I have not even a German dictionary!
However nothing matters & everything always comes out all right.
One thing strikes me most forcibly & that is how nearly every Canadian seems to know something about any other Canadian who may be mentioned. They always their Christian names & what he did & what jobs he has held. It seems to be a matter of the keenest interest & the men who get on best are those who have the greatest store of this knowledge. In other words it is necessary to be a "Who's Who in Canada." I shall never be
BC Archives, MS-0055 Box 15 File 4 / CREASE FAMILY / Letters from Arthur Douglas Crease to his brother, Lindley Crease, 1918.