A LETTER TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS BY THE NOVA SCOTIA LEAGUE
The Armouries, Halifax NS
Feb. 14, 1916
Dear Boys and Girls -
I am writing to ask you to help me. Perhaps I had better begin by letting you know who I am and why I need your help. I was once a Nova Scotia schoolboy, now I am a Nova Scotia soldier and I have been asked by the King to get together in this Province of ours 3,500 men who are willing to become soldiers, and go across the Atlantic with me to help beat the cruel Germans who are trying to destroy our Empire. They must be got quickly, in fact it is necessary that we have these 3,500 men -- your fathers and big brothers or any men who are strong and well in your section between the ages of eighteen and forty-five -- within a month from the time you receive this letter. Now you will understand that it is very hard to persuade quiet people who chop in the woods, plow the fields, work in the mines, fish in the oceans or work in the shops and offices to leave the peaceful occupations to go far across the sea to fight the faithless Germans. But if the Nova Scotia men do not cross the sea to fight the Germans in France, the Germans may come to Nova Scotia and take or destroy our farms and houses.
So you see I really need your help very badly. You must help me to raise these 3,500 men. You may say to me "What can boys and girls like us do?" Well you can carry this letter home and show it to your father and big brothers and you can ask them to come with me and other grown up Nova Scotia school boys in the defence of Nova Scotia, Canada, and the Empire. Also ask them to write to their friends and relatives not living at home, to return to Nova Scotia and enlist with us in this great cause. Then on your Nova Scotia Schools Recruiting Day, you can sing the songs of Britain with your whole voice and heart and soul. Or if you have a piece to speak about the brave deeds of some Canadian soldier boy, you can speak it and be proud that you too are a Canadian. Perhaps you may touch the heart of some grown up boy in your village and be the cause of his joining the Nova Scotia Highlanders.
You must know, boys and girls, that while all seems quiet and peaceful in the little Nova Scotia villages, this is a time of great danger for us all and that we can only win this awful war which you have heard so much about if every man, woman, boy, girl, and little child helps. We men must go to fight. You boys and girls must stay at home. If daddy and all your big brothers go, you must be good to mother. If you are boys you must get the kindlings, keep the wood-box filled, throw down the hay for the cattle, carry water from the spring and do as much of the work of the men who are away as you are able to do. If you are girls you must help your mother with the dishes, learn to sew and darn stockings, and also do as much of the work of the men who are away, as you are able to do. And remember that if you really help at home in these simple duties that are often so tiresome, you will have helped to win the great war and save the British Empire. Boys and girls of Nova Scotia, I am depending on you to help fill up the three Nova Scotia Highland Battalions.
[Photo caption (5):]
"When you are tucked up warm in bed,
And the roof is thick with snow,
The sentry of the 88th
Goes pacing to and fro."
[Photo caption (6):]
"When Highland laddies march to war,
They carry on their back
Their blanket, kit and water bottle
And roomy haversack".