CANADA AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15612, 9 June 1916, Page 3

CANADA AND THE WAR.

WHAT THE DOMINION IS DOING. (TBOX OOK OTTN COEHESPOXDENT.) TORONTO, May 5. Parliament on Monday voted 250 millions for the war budget for the current fiscal year. Premier Borden's resolution was carried without objection from, the Opposition, in accordance with Sir Wilfrid Lauricr's pledge to gladly support the Government in all necessary war measures, the Liberals merely urging that the utmost caro be taken to cut out the patronage system and thus eliminate waste, and that there should be a more thorough organisation of the whole economics of war effort in the Dominion. Sir Robert Borden announced that the total number of effectives now in the Canadian Army was about 270.000. Ho promised that the Government would endeavour so to direct recruiting as not unduly to disturb necessary industries in Canada. In answer to the allegation that French-Canadians had failed to respond to tho call for men, t.he Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux pointed out that, of the first contingent, totalling 33,000, there were '26,000 British-bom, -1-500 Anglo-Cana-dians, and 2500 Frcnch-Canadians. Hon. George P. Graham said if there had been some disappointment in the matter of numbers of recruits from the FrenchCanadians, there had been no question as to tho quality. They were in the forefront of every battle, and their names were to be found in every casualty list from the front. Hp also remarked that a s to the loyal sentiments of the Irish-born in Canada there was no doubt; there might bo anti-Britisli Irish-Americans, but in Canada the men of Irish descent fought as only the bravest fought. Sir Robert Borden said that during the past four or five months an effort had been made to have regiments raised in Canada despatched more promptly to the front. These efforts had mefc with considerable succcss, with the result that in March and April about 30,000 soldiers had crossed the Atlantic. A message he had sent the previous Thursday to the War Office would, he believed, be favourably acted on, and, if so, it would mean that the number of Canadian battalions in Great Britain would be increased to fifty-two. This would ensure the sending forward of a. considerable number of battalions in the near future. During the past nine months Canadian soldiers had crossed the Atlantic at the rate of 2000 per week. From January Ist to tho middle of April the enlistment in Canada ha 3 been an .average of about 1015 for every recruiting day, totalling 309,616. The provinces aro keeping up about the same proportionate rate of enlistment ag since the outbreak of tho war; Ontario is still leading, with a total of 128,653, and of this total Toronto district has contributed nearly 70,000 men. At the end-of March the total number of officers and men of the Canadian force in England and Franc© was 134,838, and since that date to the middle of April about 10,000 more went overseas.. And during March atod April altogether about 30,000 crossed. . Since the placing of the 75 million dollar credit a few weeks ago by Canada at the disposal of the British Minister of Munitions, orders have been placed by the Imperial Munitions Board for 80 millions dollars' worth of munitions. The orders now placed will keep most of the munition factories busy till well into the summer. Further large orders are expccted from Great Britain early in June. Commander Armstrong is in. Canada with , a party of British officers sent out by the Admiralty to secure six hundred men in Canada as recruits for the auxiliary patrol service of the Royal Navy. Two nundred of these must bo mechanics experienced with power engines, and the rest aro required to have experience in management of small craft under sail or power at sea or on the great lakes, and a good knowledge of practical seamanship, to serve as officers in command or second in command of the patrol motor-boats. On being provisionally entered in Canada, they are to be sent at once to, England for i month's course in navigation at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, to be followed by a month or six weeks at Southampton in the depot ship H.M.S. l-lermione, for instruction in rifle drill, simple gunnery,' semaphore and Morse signalling, and practical seamanship. Then they will be given duty in local patrol boate, and drafted to various small motor craft employed in the auxiliary patrol. Labour conditions in munitions factories in Toronto and Montreal are being investigated by a Government Commission. The Commission is enquiring with a view to adjusting differences between the employees and their employers, and preventing any interruption to the industry. Toronto was asked a few - days ago for 75,000 dollars to aid the Y.M.C.A. oversea work among the Canadian soldiers. Major Gerald Birks, a prominent business man of Montreal, who is chairman of the Oversea Commiteo of the Military Service Department of the Y.M.C.A., and as such has charge of the Y.M.C.A. camps in England and Franco, and tho Rev, George Adam, ono of the most nromincnt and eloquent Congregational ministers in England, who has been invited to the pulpit of City Road Chapel, and has been urged by Mr Lloyd George to enter political life, hare been speaking in the principal r-itics of Canada in the interests of this Y.M.C.A. work. Toronto, as usual, went far ahead of what sho was asked to give, the three days' canvass, under the direction of Mr Geo. A. AYarburton, General Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. here, and a veteran in the management of whirlwind campaigns for money for Y.M.C.A. and patriotic causes, resulting in tho subscription of 87.026 dollars, and the next day more than a- thousand- dollars was added, with still more to come m. Tho now American Battalion, tho 213 th, to be raised in I'>-stern Canada for the American Brigade of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, is to be commanded by _ Major-Gcner.il R. J. Bates, until recently Ad-jutant-General of the. Michigan State National Guard. He will hold the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Militia in order to lead the 213 th Battalion, but it is possible that he will become Brigadier-General in command of the American Brigade. Ho is Canadian bom, and is the second CanadianAmerican commanding officer to return from the United States to Canada to go to war, the other being Major, now Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. Jolly, in command'of the 97th Battalion. "American Legion," raised chiefly in Toronto. General Bates had the prospect of commanding an American regiment in the Mexican campaign, but relinquished the opportunity to take command of eleven or twelve hundred men in the Canadian force. He is the only man who entered the Michigan National Guard as a private who roste to become a general. He was through the Spanish-American war, commanding a battalion in Cuba.