From the News

Dated:

NEARLY THREE HUNDRED SOLDIERS ARE WELCOMED

Train Expected in Morning Arrived in Afternoon at North Toronto, But Friends Waited.

When two hundred and eighty-nine returned war veterans, including twenty soldiers who had been awarded the Military Medal, arrived at North Toronto Station at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon hundreds of their relatives and friends were on hand to welcome them home.  The brass band from Exhibition Camp and Controller McBride, Ald. Ryding and Wm. Banks, Sr., helped in extending Toronto's official welcome.

The training bringing the soldiers had been expected at 8:30 in the morning.  The six hours' delay was explained by the railway as unavoidable owing to a snowstorm and the cold weather.

Quite a number of the women who had waited hours at the station in the expectation of meeting their soldier boys had to be disappointed because of the fact of the authorities not forwarding a list telling what men were arriving.  The military authorities at Ottawa are blamed for the neglect.

Announcement is made, however, that another party of returned men for Toronto, 163 strong, has arrived at an Atlantic coast port and that the party is likely to reach Toronto about the week-end.  Those who failed to meet their soldiers yesterday will probably find them in the next contingent.

The names of the men who returned yesterday will not be available until today.  Among yesterday's party was Pte. R. Spears of Orillia, who won the Military Medal at Ypres for his pluck in saving the life of a soldier-comrade, although wounded himself.  Pte. Morval Grieves of 37 Swan avenue was one of the 20 men wearing the ribbon of the Military Medal. He won his decoration at Vimy Ridge, where he was wounded in the thigh.