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LOT HISTORIES
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to all our vets Soldiers of the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force The Canadian Virtual War Memorial The Cost of War for their families and friends in Puslinch The
Cost of World War II to the World
Patriotic Fund Meeting in Puslinch February 27,1855 In compliance with a requisition to the Reeve, a public meeting of the rate payers of Puslinch was called by him, and held on Saturday, the 24th inst., at the Town Hall. The Reeve was called to the chair, and the Township Clerk was appointed secretary. The Chairman having briefly stated the object for which the meeting was called read a letter from Mr. John Caulfield stating that from other engagements he was unable to attend the meeting, but suggesting the propriety of adopting the voluntary principle, in preference to assessment. It was moved by D.Stirton, Esq., seconded by Mr. A. McRobbie. That this meeting, while fully approving of the position taken by the Allies in opposition to the pretensions of the Czar of Russia, which has ultimately led to bloodshed and suffering to many of our fellow creatures, feel called upon to use means to relieve to some extent the distress resulting from the consequences of the war now pending, and would therefore recommend that immediate steps be taken to raise and transmit to the proper authorities a sum of money as a contribution from this Township to the Patriotic Fund of Great Britain-carried unanimously It was moved by E. F. Heath, Esq.., seconded by J. Hammersley, Esq., That the Reeve be authorized to draw and remit to the proper authorities _____ from the funds of the Municipal Council of the Township of Puslinch, the sum of One Hundred Pounds Sterling, as a subscription to the Patriotic Fund, to be applied to the relief of the widows and orphans of those who have fallen or may yet fall in the war which Great Britain is now engaged with Russia - carried unanimously The Reeve having left the chair, and Mr. Stirton having been called thereunto, it was moved, seconded, and carried by acclamation that the thanks of the meeting be given to Mr._______ unreadable ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Speech by The Burgomeister, Waalwijk, 25 November 1944 Gentlemen: We are gathered here and have asked you the favor of your presence at this meeting because we think it a point of duty to give evidence of our gratefulness to you, also and especially in this way. There is a wide space and a broad ocean between your people and ours, and what did we know of each other before this? Probably you never before in your life even heard the name of this town, of this quiet little Dutch place, in whose earth some of your fellow countrymen have now found eternal rest. None of you have any personal interest in this low flat bottom and the moist and damp earth of this faraway country in a corner of the European Continent. And yet you came here, and you came for our sake, of your own free will. We are aware of the weight and value of this sacrifice. You left your country behind you and everything that is and was dear to you there, your relations and friends, the comfort of your home, the peace and order of your daily life. And for what? Certainly not for your personal profit and advantage. It would have been much easier and much more comfortable to have stayed at home. The only reason why you made this great sacrifice for a foreign people on the other side of the world, can have been the call of humanity, the feeling and sympathy for your fellow man, whom you knew to be bound in the fetters of the German usurper and his tyranny. Now that you are here and have freed us, you stand for us as a symbol of right and justice, expelling wrong and injustice, the menace of the enemy, from our horizon. We want to express our thankfulness for this deed of humanity in general, but we have another reason for gratefulness of a more special character with a view to the narrower relation between you, who stay here, and us, people of this place. For if it had not been for your presence and vigilant protection, what misery and misfortunes could have come over us from the Germans? We are fully aware of the fact, that is merely owing to you, Canadian soldiers, that we can live here now in peace and security, in spite of the nearness of those who want to do us wrong, and before this did so in many ways. We are also fully aware that our security at the moment depends on your readiness of sacrificing, if necessary, the dearest thing a man possesses on this earth: your life. Those of your comrades who are buried here have given proof of that readiness. We shall never be able fully enough to express our sincere and deep-felt respect and thankfulness for these heroes, because it is not in the power of man to compensate for the loss of life. We can only thank and honor the dead in you, the living. As for them, we shall see to it that their graves are worthily kept and we shall pray to God that he may give their souls eternal peace. And as an expression of our feelings which words are unable to phrase adequately, we shall put these flowers on the graves of these heroes, who in the sacrifice of their lives for our sake have come to belong to you and us together through the mystic bonds of death. May God rest their souls. (Courtesy of Robert MacFarlane) |