landers at the
Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the fact that a large number from the Colony
were present and moved the vote of thanks at the end should have been
sufficient guarantee of the _bona fides_ of my statements. But the
over-enthusiastic account of a reporter who unfortunately was not
present gave my critics the chance for which they were looking. It was
at a time when any criticism whatever of a country that was responding
so generously to the homeland's call for help would have been
impolitic, even if true. It subsequently proved one factor, however,
in obtaining the commission of inquiry from the Government, and so far
was really a blessing to our work. In retrospect it is easy to see
that all things work together for good, but at the time, oddly enough,
even if such reports are absolutely false, they hurt more than the
point of a good steel knife. Anonymous letters, on the contrary, with
which form of correspondence I have a bowing acquaintance, only
disturb the waste-paper basket.

The Governor, the representatives of our Council, the Honourable
Robert Watson and the Honourable W.C. Job, and my many other fast
friends, however, soon made it possible for me to forget the matter.
If protest breeds opposition, it in turn begets apposition, and a
good line of demarcation--a "no man's land" between friend and
foe--and gives a healthy atmosphere in so-called times of peace.

In the year 1915 a large cooperative store was established at Cape
Charles near Battle Harbour, which bred such opposition amongst
certain merchants that it proved instrumental also in obtaining for us
the Government commission of inquiry sent down a few months later.
After a thorough investigation of St. Anthony, Battle Harbour, Cape
Charles, Forteau, Red Bay, and Flowers Cove, summoning every possible
witness and tracing all rumours to their source, the commissioners'
findings were so favourable to the Mission that on their return to St.
John's our still undaunted detractors could only attribute it to
supernatural agencies.

My colleague at Battle Harbour, Dr. John Grieve, who with his wife had
already given us so many years' work there, and whose interest in the
cooperative effort at Cape Charles was responsible for its initial
success, had worked out a plan for a winter hospital station in Lewis
Bay, and had surveyed the necessary land grant. Through the
resignation of our business manager, Mr. Sheard, and the selection of
Dr. Grieve by the