CANADA'S LOST LEGION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19805, 28 November 1927, Page 11

CANADA'S LOST LEGION.

EPISODE OF GREAT WAR. STRANGE STORY REVEALED. DOINGS OF THE " UMPTY-UMPS." [FROM our own correspondent.] VANCOUVER, Nov. 2. It is not generally known that Canada had a lost legion in the Great War—it was not generally known in this Dominion until the facts were published recently. One of the members of the headquarters of Camp Valcartier, Quebec, tells the story of this lost legion. It was a battalion, known for the purposes of his chronicle as the " Umpty-Umps." It wias composed of Fren«h-Canadians, with b French-Canadian colonel. It seems there were some peculiar practices in the unit. For instance, it is said that leave was granted to the men at a definite tariff. They paid willingly. The history of the unit, published a week ago in Toronto, said that there was a tariff, also, for minor offences, which indicated that more than one officer was in the plot Everything ran smoothly for a time, until rumour and suspicion became busy, and an investigation was privately made Whether by coincidence or not, at this time, an order for the embarkation of the battalion came from headquarters at Ottawa. Its destination was Bermuda. Before issuing last-leave passes to the men, the colonel had them formed up before him, and, in an impassioned address, in which he said they had been unfairly treatpd in being ordered to the tropics in mid-Atlantic, he assurod them that, if they did not return from leave, the battalion commander would not worry. They went away and did not return. Some marched by .platoons and companies, others independently. Some went to the railway station, taking train for Quebec. Others went toward the ranges. There was excitement at headquarters of the camp when the battalion's intention had become known. The colonel was court-martialled on a number of charges, cashiered and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary on the Island of Montreal. After serving two months, he was released by order of a high authority.