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I must bear my testimony to the marvellous uprising of the City of Halifax to meet the emergency. It was like a gallant ship breasting a huge billow. The City was organized for relief with greater speed than had ever happened probably in modern times in the face of any such catastrophe. The houses of the South end were thrown open almost without question to every suffered or homeless one. Bureaus of clothing and food were in operation within twenty-four hours of the accident. The busiest men in the city, men whose time was worth many dollars per hour, dropped their duties and took up the work of fraternity and help. I do not think any such spectacle has been seen since the days of the Early Church on such a scale.
One ought also to pay tribute to the response which came from every quarter of the Continent. No sooner was the story heard and the need known, than the whole of America became a dynamo of activities for relief. We owe an immense debt to all of these. The fortitude of the suffered in the hospitals was also wonderful. Many had lost all they had in the world. Some were the sole survivors of familities, other were lost so far as knowledge of the whereabouts of their relations with wounds that could not be looked at for hours, and yet not a complaint was heard. It was a revelation of the powers of endurance inherent in our humanity.
Received Dec. 28, 1917.