HALIFAX CITADEL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 57, 8 March 1932, Page 7

HALIFAX CITADEL

ffISTORIC "FORTRESS

ONION JACK HAULED DOWN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 20th January. .. A chapter of British North American history was closed, recently, when the tlnion Jack was hauled down from the Halifax Citadel, where it had flown since 1749. on a fortress that had throughout withstood the invader's attack. The Halifax Citadel officially ceased to exist when the Nova Scotia Company of the Royal Canadian Regi-I ment marched out of the garrison. A formidable fortress, a Gibraltar for those soldiers of another age to whom was entrusted, in. succession, the duty j of safeguarding British North America for Sovereign and Empire, thus passes into history. From the Citadel, since'the city was founded in 1749, thousands of British! soldiers have looked down on Halifax and its harbour. There "United Empire i [Loyalists turned for succour to the-flag they loved. A British frigate limped | up the harbour in> 1812 after engaging single handed an' American squadron. A year later, H.M.S. Shannon proudly brought in her prize, the Chesapeake, j Their scuppers had "mn Ted in battle." To. Halifax Citadel England sent her red coats whenever trouble loomed in. North America. To and from all the wars in the intervening years troops went and came. To its very gates came the horrors of war when the ammunition ship, Mount Blanc, blew up in •Halifax Harbour in 19,17. Many eminent soldiers of the British Army served in the Citadel with their regmients. Perhaps the greatest was wir John Moore, Commander-in-Chief mj;he peninsula War. In the house in which he lodged a tablet of commemoration rests to-day. ■ ■^Inall its long and honourable history there was perhaps no more significant episode than when Canada took over worn Great Britain the care of tho fortress in 1906. Outwardly all was peace and good-will between the Governments of the Motherland and the senior Dominion. One felt the need of economy of troops and funds, and wished to withdraw her garrison at Halifax; the other felt that Canada's song should guard her shores. The British troops at Halifax felt differently. They were bitter at the thought that they were to be disbanded as a company of the Royal Garrison Artillery and scattered in small details, reinforcing drafts to parts of the Empire where life was not so pleasant as at Halifax, the prize overseas station of the British Army. _ Public opinion fanned the troops' bitterness. It was widely felt that Canada was taking on more responsibility than she could bear.-

and men of the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery had moved into_ their new quarters. They were received with marked coolness, not" only by the troops but by the people of Halifax. ' Suddenly, as officers were conferring, the storm broke. A huge bonfire blazed on the parade ground, «jd by tables, chairs, and every article of furniture' the soldiers could seize. From every window in the Citadel pots, Pans, basins, and pails hurtled through tho air to crash on the solid pavement °f the parade grounds. With such expressions of their disapproval, the last British Army GarriS6n embarked for Home. Halifax haa known them no more.

present to the Homo Secretary the unpleasant facts of the prison riot, ■ and what led up to it. Then action will lie with the Homo Secretary. . "His best course would be to take an immediate decision for the closing of the prison. Draft the prisoners to other and more easily administered settlements; separate them; revise the system of easy treatment for the 'bad men*; make an end of 'the Moor.' "