CANADA AND THE WAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8214, 11 August 1915, Page 8

CANADA AND THE WAR

MEN, AND MORE MEN. A DETERMINED. PEOPLE. A campaign is on foot in Canada to bring the national fighting strength-up to 350,000 or 500,000 nu-x Tho Melbourne "Argus" correspondent, writing from Toronto under date May 6, makes tho following interesting .remarks on the general situation with regard.to Canada's share in the war: Canada begins to understand the significance of war. The country's losses at Langemarck appear to have totalled over 6000, including a,bout 800 killed, 2150 wounded, and 2536 missing. Some 250 officers are understood to have fallen, but the casualty lists dribble in slowly, and even yet we cannot say how many of the 2500 reported missing are dead, and how many are prisoners of tho enemy. The anxiety throughout the Dominion is great; for the regiments were drawn from nearly every province, though principally from Ontario, Quebec, and the West. Our sorrow is mingled with a great pride,,. for our troops , fought from Thursday, April 22, till Sunday, April 26, with little support, with little to eat or drink, with precarious supplies of war, and with an overwhelming force before, 1 hi flank, and behind them. They held the line, and when it broke they • reformed it, and they charged ,their sixfold foo again and again and defeated him. The Germans were halted before they could attain their object of getting across the canal in force. To the Canadian troops the military critics cordially and ungrudg-. ingly accord the credit of stopping them. As General French has. said they " saved the situation," and the authorities are inundated with messages of congratulations and condolence. \ .. Several of the Canadian battalions, lost nearly all their officers—uien drawn . largely from the business aiid professional life of the country. Theuj is no disposition to claim greater qualities for our troops than for others at the front, but it;is grateful to Canadians to have praise from Australia and New Zealand. You rejoice over the capture of the Emdon by the Sydney, over the success of the Antrpodeans at the Dardanelles, and over the valour and resolution displayed by Dutch and English in South Africa. Even befoce the battle of Langemarck the Canadian losses were heavy. Severe losses had been suffered by the Princess Patricia 3£egiment in earlier engagements, and permanently invalided soldiers have begun to find their way back to their, Canadian homes, from which they so cheerfully set out only a few months ago. On© effect of the sad and'yet satisfying, news from Flanders has been to strengthen the determination of the Canadian Government and people to increase their exertions in helping to secure a final victory. The use of asphyxiating gas against the Dominion troops has so angered our. people that there is a keener desire than ever to fill up the gaps at the front. Troopships leave our shores unannounced at irregular intervals, so that while a considerable proportion of the second and third contingents have gone, I am unable to give any detailed statistics of the numbers thus. moved. In a short time the Dominion will have two complete army divisions in Canada in training and ready to furnish reinforcements as soon as required., It is expected that reinforcements at the rate* of approximately 8000 per month will f>e needed, and these will be sent from the fourth contingent as the call comes from the War, Office. Before this letter reaches Australia we shall have sent 70,000 troops to Europe, and by December we shall have sent 155,000 j men, and still have 50,000 under arms at home. A campaign is under way, led by ■ Mi-jN. W. Rowell v K.C., Leader of the Liberal Party in Ontario, to raise the national fighting force to a strength of 350.000 or 500,000. Fourteen hundred students from McGill University.and the* 1 University of Toronto and Western Universities are in training; at Niagara-cn-the-Lake. They belong to the Canadian Officers' Training Corps, and the camp will furnish junior officers as rapidly as possible to fill vacancies at the front. Scores of youn£ Canadians are training in the Canadian aviation school, near Toronto, for service in the Hoyal Naval Air Corps. The school is under the direction:'of Mr J. A, I>. McCurdy, the pioneer Canadian aviator^ returned from England for this work. One 'hundred- additional Canadian doctors are being selected to go to England, in answer to a request from the War Office for more help at the British field and baso hospitals. Canada will soon have a medical staff of about 300 doctors and 450 nurses in England and Franco. There is still a list of 1200 nurses on file at the Department to draw upon. The City Council of Toronto has insured the lives of the 8550 Toronto men in the first two contin- ' gents for a total sum of 9,050,000 dollars, at a cost of' 389,550 dollars/per annum. This is in addition to the 1.000,000 dollars raised by private effort for' the support of Toronto soldi pvh' dependents, and in addition to other largo sums contributed to the Belgian and other relief funds.