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Western Mail, Thursday, 19 December 1929, p. 2
The Soul of the Fallen.
One of the most remarkable war memorials on the western front is that at St. Julien, erected by Canada in honour of the 18,000 Canadians who withstood the first German gas attacks on April 22, 1915, and of the 2,980 who fell in action and lie buried there. Describing his impressions of the memorial, a writer in the London "Standard" said:-
"At St. Julien there stands a monument which affected me beyond the power of stone. From a grey and giant sheath grow the head and shoulders of a Canadian soldier. The head, crowned with the familiar helmet, is bent, the hands are folded upon a reversed rifle; the soldier watches over those who sleep beneath. It has almost the power of the Greek: "Stranger, depart and tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here obeying their laws." There is a mysterious power in this brooding figure, drawing you from the things that are to the things that were. It does more than command the landscape, it orders the spirit. The monument is a pretty thing and a fine gesture; this is the soul of those who fell. It is conceivable that a grey day might add to the spiritual significance of this memorial; in the blazing August sun its shock is ever whelming."
A special correspondent of the "Daily Graphic" describes the monument in much the same way, speaking of it as brooding "in mingled love and domination over the countryside." He adds: "It is by far the finest memorial of the late war that I have seen, and, the one that will tell future generations most about the war."