ack around the world
And answer with a will;
It's England for her own, my boys,
And Rule Britannia still."

So the "sons of the Blood" began to foregather from the ends of the
earth.

And when cavalry units were desired from Canada the Mounted Police got a
certain degree of opportunity. We put it in that way because for reasons
known to the Dominion Government there was always necessity for keeping
the larger part of the corps in Canada. They could not be allowed to
enlist in a body for any war, and men who had special grasp of the
problems at home could not be spared to go abroad. Nothing can be gained
for the Empire through losing ground at home in efforts to gain it
abroad. And this applied to both the Boer War and the recent Great War,
in so far as the Mounted Police were concerned. At the Boer War period,
we had the Yukon rush, which meant an extraordinary mob of desperate
characters to deal with, in addition to the problems ensuing from large
immigration into the Middle West. And at the period of the Great War,
there was a singularly elusive but definitely pronounced tendency to
destructive revolution in various parts of Canada, which only a corps
with the great prestige of the Mounted Police could successfully meet
with firmness and tact. The undisciplined violence which raw forces
might use in such a restless, mutinous period, would work positive harm
to the whole Dominion. Hence we could not on either occasion let the
whole Force go abroad.

But on both occasions some opportunity was given to a certain number of
officers and men, the main difficulty being, as the Commissioner said,
"not who would go, but who _must_ stay at home." However, in the Boer
War the Mounted Police furnished, most being on the active roll, but
some ex-members, nearly 300 officers and men to the Canadian Mounted
Rifles, Strathcona's Horse, South African Constabulary, and other corps.
Their identity was lost by merging them with various units, but,
nevertheless, they did conspicuous and distinctive service. It is no
reflection on those with whom they were merged to say that the special
qualities which came from years of discipline and esprit de corps, as
well as the decided initiative which their training on the frontier
always developed, gave the Police a place of peculiar influence and
prominence on the veld. And this was true of ex-members of the Force who
served in various corps. There was "Charlie" Ross, for instance,