CANADA 



1129 



CANADA 



ern Railway, by which the government, in re- 

 turn for aid granted by it, acquired $40,000,000 

 of the $100,000,000 capital stock. All of these 

 issues sank into insignificance in the autumn of 



1914, on the outbreak of the War of the 

 Nations, when Canada at once proffered its aid 

 to the mother country. Its part in the struggle 

 was a most honorable one. . G.H.L. 



Canada and the War 



The Nation's Loyalty and Patriotism. 

 Within three hours after Great Britain had 

 declared war a call was issued for a special 

 session of the Dominion Parliament. At the 

 beginning of the session, on August 18, the 

 Duke of Connaught, Governor-General, boasted 

 that "the spirit which animates Canada in- 

 spires His Majesty's dominions throughout the 

 world, and we may be assured that united 

 action to repel the common danger will not 

 fail to strengthen the ties that bind together 

 these vast dominions." Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 

 the leader of the Liberal opposition, instead of 

 offering the usual objections to the govern- 

 ment's policy, promised the whole-hearted sup- 

 port of his party in the fight "for freedom 

 against oppression, for democracy against 

 autocracy, for civilization against reversion to 

 that barbarism in which the supreme law, the 

 only law, is the law of might." Parliament re- 

 sponded to these appeals by appropriating 

 $50,000,000 for war expenditures, the amount 

 to be raised by additional duties and taxes. 



Everywhere throughout the Dominion its 

 citizens were giving evidence of the spirit 

 which animated the people. A special regi- 

 ment, the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, 

 was equipped by one man, $500,000 was donated 

 by another, $100,000 for a battery of quick- 

 firers was offered by a third, one million bags 

 of flour were donated to Great Britain by the 

 Dominion government, and flour, cheese, horses, 

 tinned salmon and other commodities were 

 offered by the provincial governments in large 

 quantities. 



Patriotism alone, however, wins no battles. 

 The Canadian government at once placed at 

 the disposal of the British government the 

 cruisers Niobe and Rainbow, and on August 5 

 purchased two submarines, just completed for 

 Chile, and held these ready for the defense of 

 the western coast. It also offered to send an 

 expeditionary force of 20,000 men or more. 

 Within three weeks 32,000 men had volunteered 

 and were in training at Camp Valcartier, while 

 150,000 more had volunteered. The first Cana- 

 dian continguent reached Plymouth, England, 

 on October 8, 1914, and before the end of the 

 year a part of it was on the fighting line. In 



April, 1915, in the second Battle of Ypres, the 

 Canadian division, though greatly outnum- 

 bered, held its ground at Saint Julien, and 

 thereby saved the allies from a great disaster. 

 Men accustomed to civilian life, men drawn 

 from the bar, the universities, the shops and 

 counting houses, from every activity, were 

 plunged into the most scientific, the most 

 bloody and the most devastating war in the his- 

 tory of mankind. And these men proved their 

 right to stand side by side with the bravest 

 veterans. The Canadians made good. In the 

 second Battle of Ypres, or the battle of Saint 

 Julien, as the Canadians' part in it is known 



"The Canadian officers, and indeed men, had 

 the Wellington touch the touch of the man who 

 neve"r lost an English gun which he did not re- 

 cover. What Wellington did in the Pyrenees 

 the Canadians did on the flattest plain in Europe. 

 Within four hours they turned around and ad- 

 vanced. They endured every sort of difficulty, 

 mental or mechanical. They met men terribly 

 sick, half-blind and weak in the limbs from the 

 fumes let loose by the Germans. They had to 

 face shrapnel, rifle fire, machine-gun fire, in a 

 country absolutely defenseless. They were 

 wounded by every sort of engine by the bay- 

 onet, by gas, by bits of metal of every shape 

 and size. But they charged home against all 

 the rules of war as understood in German text- 

 books."' 



Meanwhile those who were left at home 

 cheerfully assumed the burdens thrust on them 

 by war. The aim of the government was to 

 raise an army first of 250,000, then gradually 

 increasing to 500,000 men. In the work of 

 organization the most conspicuous man was 

 Major-General Sir Sam Hughes, and to the 

 front in France General Sir Arthur Currie was 

 despatched as commander in chief of Canada's 

 overseas forces. In 1917 the call for men be- 

 came so pressing that the government passed 

 a conscription act, following the example of the 

 United States. This was patriotically received 

 in all the provinces excepting Quebec, where in 

 the spring of 1918 draft riots occurred. Another 

 remarkable evidence of Canadian loyalty is the 

 Canadian Patriotic Fund, over $15,000,000, 

 raised by voluntary subscriptions, and used in 

 taking care of the wives and children of those 

 who have gone to the front. See, also, WAR OF 

 THE NATIONS. G.H.L. 



