OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15777, 19 December 1916, Page 8

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

RESIGNATION OF SIR SAM HUGHES. (from our own* corrkspoxdkxt.) TORONTO, November 17. The first official act of his Exccllency the Duke of Devonshire as the new Governor-General of Canada, was to receivo from the hands of Sir Robert Borden, Prime Minister, the resignation, just placed in His hands, of the Minister of Militia, Hon. LieutenantGeneral Sir Sam Hughes. It had been sent to the Premier at Sir Robert's written request, and came somewhat suddenly on Monday as the culmination of a quarrel between Sir Sam Hughes and Sir Robert Borden, perhaps the immediate causo of the turning of the scale for Sir Robert and ]eaumg him to ask for tho resignation being some speeches recently made in Toronto by Sir Sam, criticising the methods of administration of the affairs of the Canadian troops in England by the War Office, and claiming much improvement in various ways since he, Sir Sam, had gone over and seen to things. Sir Sam's habitual domineering manner in conducting his Department, even before the war, overriding members of his own party who claimed some say in the matter of apppointments and patronage, his way of carrying on his affairs without consulting his colleagues, and his general habit of keeping himself in the spotlight, have not gone down comfortably with his colleagues, and not alone by Liberals has he been criticised and denounced for these and other reasons, but many even in his own party have clamoured for him to be either curbed or dismissed. The disclosures of the Mere-dith-Duff and Davidson Commissions with regard to "graft;' in the supplying of shells, horees, medicines, hay, and various other supplies for the overseas forces, and in particular Sir' Sam's obstinate sticking to "the discredited "Hon.-Col." J. W. Allison, oven after his stern condemnation by the Commissioners, intensified the dissatisfaction with the Minister of Militia. the Camp Borden hardships, and particularly the notorious parade there staged for Sir Sam, in which the troops suffered terribly from heat and sand, added to the previous counts against him, and made his name odious to the great mass of soldiers all over Canada and to their relatives and friends, as well as to thousands of other citizens. Sir Sam's actions and speeches in England and France did not help matters. And so the whole affair has culminated in his resigning, after an exchange of letters of mutual accusation. He charges Sir Robert Borden with, having for a year had the design of placing Sir Georgo Perley at the bead of the oversea forces, with-lack of frankness and support, and with favoritism, while tho Premier accuses Sir Sam _of wanting to run his Department as if it were a, Government in itself, of failure to cooperate with his colleagues or keep them informed of .what he proposed to do, and consequently with violating the principle of joint Cabinet responsibility. Tho correspondence wa9 submitted to the Governor-General, and after.perusing it ho decided that it had better be made public, which wps done on Wednesday morning. The Department is being administered by the Prime Minister for the present, Sir George Perley having been some days 6Worn in as Minister of Overseas Military Affairs, with a Sub-Militia Council to advise with him: the numbers of this Council are to be reduced from the size as constituted by Sir Sam Hughes, so as to correspond to the size of the British Military Council. URGENT NEED FOR MORE MEN. Enlistments were the lowest in October for any month 6inc c the war began, totalling 5999, or 385 below tho number in September; and less than half the total number of casualties for October. There was a serious falling-off since the early months of tho year. Since the war began the total enlistments to the end of Oetobcr were 371,595, of which Ontario contributed 152,995, Manitoba and .Saskatchewan 74,748, Quebec Province 39,907, British Columbia 30,580, tho Maritime Provinces 33,694, and Alberta 33,6/1. During October Montreal led the districts as in September, with 1160; Toronto had 939, Manitoba and Saskatchewan 853, Kingston district- £37, the Maritime Provinces 617, London District J573, British Columbia Alberta 349 and Quebec District Captain A. G. E. Smith, of the Six -Nations Reserve (who has been awarded the Military Cross), recently home en furlough, but now back with -utn. Battalion on the Sommc, writing home stated that the Canadians there needed 17 000 reinforcements after the battles on'the Sommc, after having been reinforced but two weeks previously, ihis shows the urgent need. Cable advices on November Ist reported that most of the Canadians had been moved off the Somme front, after several weeks of fighting, and had been given positions in the Loos sector, to the north. General Steele, in cnarge 01 the Canadian troops in England, has been planning, with a Board, to utilise more fully the surplus senior officers coming over with battalions which, on arrival in England, are broken i'[> and used ns reinforcements; the result will be that every officer coming from Canada will have ait least some Bervide -'It the front, many remaining there and others returning to Canada for instructional duty. There will bo only 20,000 troops 111 Toronto this winter, where there were 40.000 last year. Military officers in tho Toronto M'' l " ttry District, as well as the Divisional Officers Commanding from ail over Canada, who conferred a few days ago in Ottawa, arc in favour of some P' a " of modified conscription, thinking that the voluntary system has readied its limit, while still 100,000 have to oe secured to make up the 500, 1 000 promised by Premier Borden. The Go,ommont" however, is at present still

opposed to any form of compulsion for slackers. Yet, from all parts of the Dominion, from Recruiting Leagues, and as well as from many bodies of different character, church organisations and representative official gatherings included, come the cries for conscription, or at any rate for the thorough enforcement of the powers of the National Servico Commission for registration of man-power, in order to give recruiting officers a better chance. A big mass meeting of tho Methodists of Toronto was held a few days ago in the Metropolitan Church, at which the General Superintendent oi the Church in Canada, Rev. Dr. S. D. Chown, came out unqualifiedly for conscription, saying no one could havo convinced him at the beginning of the war that his views would so change, but that lie had been compelled to the conclusion that tho voluntary system was not sufficient to enable Canada to do her duty. His announcement of having swung around to the idea was loudly cheered. Sir Sam Hti plies intimated from "inside authority" that if tho hundred thousand men were not forthcoming by spring, Canadians might exoect conscription. A strong resolution, moved by Chester D. Maseey, head of the Ma-sscy-Harris Company (probably the largest manufacturers or agricultural implements in tho world), and seconded by the Rev. Dr. James Allen, General Secretary of Homo Missions, and carried unanimously and enthusiastically <by standing vote, urged every Methodist to consider again his or her individual rcsponsibilitv and dutv, and make decision; also pledging the Prime Minister and the Minister of Militia to do all they could to «6o influence tho Methodists ot Canada that to the last man thev would respond to this urgent appeal of feir Robert Borden. PLOTS AGAINST CANADA. Speaking to the Empire Club in this city a few days ago, Sir Sam. Hughes issued a warning that German money was being insidiously spent in getting control of newspapers and newspaper writers in Canada to belittlo militia work and--discredit recruiting. A party of ten Mennonites from .the United States, six men and four women, was turned back from Windsor to Detroit this week by the Immigration officials becauso they cam© with tho avowed purpose of holding a series of "revival meetings" in Huron County to discourage young men from enlisting, as the Mennonite Church is against all'military activity. Plans of a dastardly attempt by German agents to spread the foot-and--1 mouth disease in Canada came to light a few days ago, Ottawa haying received information on the Ist instant that Germans in Switzerland aro trying to induce a number of Swiss peasants to emigrate to Canada as farmers for the purpose of propagating this destructive | disease. Their expenses would all be paid, and thev furnished with small bottles containing cultures of the bacilli. The United States recently | succeeded in stamping out, at enori mous cost, the worst outbreak of tins disease in the history of that country, j Rigorous restrictions kept it out of I Canada.

TIME TO BE VP AND I>OD?G. Mr J. R. Sinclair, the New Zealand member of the Dominions Royal Commission, which during tho past month completed tho holding of its sessions at different points throughout Canada, expressed nt Montreal the opinion that it is about time Canada was doing something to relieve the . ocean tonnage shortage, when the Commission had heard evidence of ship scarcity from James Carruthers, of Montreal, one of the largest shipowners in the Dominion, and of the inequality of freight rates on wheat and flour, and the side of the shipowners on theso points from W. I. Gear, of Montreal. In this connexion it may be noted that contracts have .been signed for tho construction in Vancouver of three steamers for the Stol-iNielsen Company, of Norway, standard type freight carriers of 8800 tons, costing one and a quarter million dollars each. Negotiations are on for the building of five more similar freighters. Scarcity of labour prevents shipbuilders in the maritime provinces from filling orders that have been placed since the outbreak of file war. The high price of steel has been the cause of the return to the lakes of -wooden sailing vessels, which had become almost obsolete a low years ago. Between 3o and 40 such are under construction, mostly for transatlantic service.