460 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 78 PART 3 MAY 2020
so on, just as I had left them the night before. I dictated a Notice of Motion
for a Stay of Proceedings, and an Affidavit in support.
What broke me up was this: my office window is just across the corner
from the Court House. I was sitting there watching soldiers going in and out
of the old Hotel, when a great, full chorus of men’s voices broke into “Land
of Hope and Glory”. The Canadian Legion, in session at the new Hotel, were
lined up solid across the Court House steps, from top to bottom, singing.
That, as I say, broke me up.
Five years ago this spring, in that other life we used to live in that other
world, we had crowded at that window to watch the King and Queen go by.
Four years ago, I remember sitting in Malcolm Macdonald’s room, wondering
how he had the heart to say that England would pull through somehow.
Monday, there was a picture in the paper of a group of German officers,
eyes down, mouths tight, carrying little blanket rolls and what not, marching
through England.
Twenty-nine years ago I was Secretary of the Bar Association, and word
reached us that Vancouver battalions were under the disadvantage of having
no machine guns. We collected money to send several Lewis guns, costing
$1,000 a piece. We also contributed to the Patriotic Fund to maintain the
dependants of the men in the army. We thought of the Great World War as
being the ultimate effort to end all wars.
So I sat at my office window, revolving many memories, on D-day, when
all our hopes and prayers began to look forward towards fulfilment. That
was a week ago, and now there is an army in France equal in number to the
population of Vancouver, men, women and children.
That was a week ago, and now the law mill is turning over in the June
rush to clean up the list. Lorne Rodway was telling me that he had a letter
from Tommy Norris a while back, saying how much he appreciated reading
news of doings around the Court House. The administration of justice is just
about the steadiest institution in the country these days. Nevertheless times
have changed, with law being turned out in weekly pamphlets of Orders-in-
Council. Possibly the most irritating pestilence to hit the profession has
been the Rental Control Regulations. The worthy object of these was to prevent
the boosting of rent, the demand for housing accommodation greatly
exceeding the supply. The stratum of the public that flows into law offices
and eventually into Judge Boyd’s crowded Rent Court is made up of those
intent upon novel subterfuges, artifices and devices to beat the regulations
as fast as they can be turned out from Ottawa. Embattled brigades of landlords
on one side and tenants on the other wage unceasing warfare on each
other on the issue of Get Out versus Stay In. The procedure is unusually
tricky, and the results unprofitable to any and all concerned.