"Canada Remembers" -- at head of title, t.p.

Signed

"When I joined the Navy in 1933 I was issued with the usual multitude of things that go towards making up a sailor's kit. Among the plethora of items, including an open razor, a somewhat doubtful object to issue to a fifteen year old, was an item that appeared on the list as a "Ditty box, one in number"... This was apparently intended to hold those precious things that would suffer if rolled up and stuffed in a kit bag. It became the repository for letters from home, photographs and a miscellaneous collection of items I regarded as far too valuable to be kept in a kit bag... Over the years it became the repository of memorabilia including poems that appealed to me cut out of books and magazines. It also contained my own feeble efforts to convey in rhyme the events that were part of my world. As the years passed I added to my collection the poetry of other sailors, soldiers and airmen that touched my fancy. Not that I did not read and enjoy the works of well known poets, I did, but somehow the military poems seemed to touch the heart of the matter... My pilgrimage to the box has become less and less frequent... In this 50th anniversary year I was moved once again to open the box and an idle thought struck me. How many boxes like mine still exist throughout Canada, tucked away and almost forgotten there must be poems written about World War II that, like mine, are yellowing with age and may never see the light of day... This idle thought transformed itself into action. I let it be known that I wanted such poetry. The response exceeded my greatest expectations. My box is full and in these pages I have the enormous privilege of letting others read of the courage, loyalty, love and sorrow in the words of those who served and those who loved them..." -- from the preface