CONSCRIPTION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15939, 28 June 1917, Page 9

CONSCRIPTION.

CANADA'S DECISION

(fkou our. own' roKßr.yroxDEvr.'i

TORONTO, May 22. Conscription has been decided on by tho Government of Canada. Sir, Robert Borden, in the House of Commons on Friday, 18th instant, after reviewing tho proceedings of tho Imperial War Conference, from which ho returned only a few days ago, announced to the llouso that early i>ioposals would bo mado on tho part of tho Government to provide by compulsory military enlistment on a selective basis, euch. rein- 1 forccments as may bo necessary to maintain the Canadian Army to-day on tho field its ono of tho finest fighting units of the Umpire. Tho number of men required would be not less than 50,000. and would probably be 100,000.

The announcement caused great n> joicing all over Canada, lor it had been felt, and strongly expressed in countless resolutions forwarded to the Government by all sorts of organisations, that tho voluntary system was exhausted. and that drastic measures would havo to bo introduced right away to keep up the Canadian forces at tho front, even to the strength of tho four divisions thoro, let alono sending a fifth, which is organised and ready to proceed to the firing line. The Leader of tho Opposition, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. following Premier Borden, said the Liberals woro dctciniincd to stay in this war to the end, until victorv has been won, and to do their duty to the best of th'oir judgment, "and in such a way as to ensure that tho host, methods are adopted to bring about that victory for which wo arc all longing, and which we all hopo will certainly come, whether it comes early or late." Whenever the Government s new policy should be made known to them, Sir Wilfrid said, ho and those who sit beside him would receivo and consider it in tho samo spirit that they had determined since the outbreak of the. war to assume towards aJI the proposals of the Government, that is, to give them due aud fair consideration, reserving to themselves the right of free British subjects to discharge their duties in tne way they consider they ought to be discharged. . . The announcement of conscription proposals has stimulated enlistment, antl thoro lias been a rush of men to the recruiting depots in Toronto and elsewhere, greater than at any time sincc the snring of 1916, Juno I. The Conscription Bill has not yet been brought in, and both parties arc perplexed over that matter, and over tho problems of a coalition government or reconstruction of the Cabinet, and extension of Parliamont or a general election.

The minimum ago for conscription has been announced as twenty years, and it is hinted that there will bo a number of classes of exemptions, including men engaged in agriculture, transportation, and several kinds of manufacturing; in short, what will bo tailed '"essential" industries. Senator Power has a Bill to exempt any man who luis a father, son, or brother overseas, in order to get -first the slackers. As for the conscription proposal, as time goes by, since Sir Robert Borden made his announcement of the Government's intention to bring it forward shortly, but did not at onco introduce the measure for first and second reading, opportunity has been given for all sorts of objections to be raised. A considerable body of public opinion is against departing from the voluntary system. thinking that it ought to ho given further trial. Yet on the other hand, Jfc is pointed out that tlio time demands. quick and effective action, and whatever tho failures of tho past the only way now is compulsory enlistment. Many, very many, have felt .that that is the method that should have been'put in force from tho very first, ns tho only fair and democratic system, as well as tbo most effective in forming a, largo army. But thero is a strong body of opinion averse to having compulsion enacted and carried out by a Government which has had so many charges of mismanagement of tho war affairs brought against it. This body of opinion saj-s, in effect: l; Wo are not against conscription, in fact we want it, but let the Government, which is even now living on borrowed time, get tho voice of tho electors, and if returned to power, let it then go ahead with conscription, but if it has not now the confidence of the people sufficient to be returned to power, then it certainly should not attempt to enforce a. system of compulsion, to which thero is so much opposition in some parts of the country." This is a pretty general feeling among Liberals, especially in the province of Quebec. It does not appear that there is so much Opposition to conscription in itself among the French Canadians, and Lieut.-Colonel Blondin and General Lcssard, who have been recruiting in that province with a good deal of success considering every tiling, say that if tho French-speaking people had been properly approached from the beginning, they would have responded in far greater numbers to the appeals for voluntary enlistment; that now all that, is needed is to show them tho real necessity, and to deal with them fairly, and they will flock into tho ranks. As it is, Quebec shows up wonderfully well in the record of enlistments, and, bo it said also, in the casualty lists. The National Service scheme has fallen flat, the only use being made of the cards being to furnish names for drawing upon men for industries of some kinds; all the flourish of trumpets, and all tho cost, has gone for very little, and has been practically unavailing to fill up the ranks of the Canadian army. The Canadian Defence Forco scheme also has fizzled out. having accomplished the enlistment of only a few hundred men, and those are now being disbanded and put into either militia regiments or overseas companies of such or into the overseas battalions. There are only about 25,000 men left in Canada of the overseas forces. Some 302,000 officers and men have been sent to England, up to Mav Ist, but the enlistments to that dato_ totalled more than 400,000; so that there is a wastage somewhere, as yet unexplained. of some 70.000 men. Moreover, of the men who got to England, according to Colonel Bruce's report, some 16 per cent, were found unfit and sent back. So that thero havo been, of the 400,000 enlisted men, about 100,000 who have never cot to the front at all. These conditions, have made seriously against volunteering. THE POSITION IN AMERICA. A MIXED RECEPTION. <TOOM OUR owyr COBHESPOKDENT.) SAN FRANCISCO, June 4. Goaded to a state' of desperation through America now becoming a formidable antagonist against the Kaiser's hateful Prussian militarism and its concomitant horror of barbarism, the henchmen of the Great Assassin—as Wilhelm is now cynically referred to j in the United States —havo again shown their egregious attitude- to anything I American, their latest recrudescence

being in tho direction of stirring up | trouble in fomenting feeling against j Undo Sam's conscription policy. These ' meddling Teutons have already had some measure of success, for all ovor . the wide expanse of the American con- j tinent there have sprung up undoutu- j ed murmurings against the solective j draft and its accompanying form of male registration of all men between { tho ages of 21 and 31 years. ; Tho seditious movement appears t/> i have had its public inception bv tons | of literaturo flooding the leading towns, | couched in vitriolic language strongly I advising the population uffccted by the j draft to refuse to register. Appeals j were also mado that the Government j draft measure contravened the Aineri- j can Constitution as it tended to a point of slavery, which long ago h-vl I been abolished ia the confines of the ! United States.

German influence-; to encourage resistance to any registration and the selective draft, uncovered in Texas by a Federal grand jury investigation, aircady have resulted in eleven indictments. Other arrests on similar charges made in various cities by agents of the Department of Justice apparently aro not so closely linked with German influence, but are being exhaustively investigated. In the Texas case", according to 'an official announcement by tho Department of Justice ; an organisation was formed some time ago, ostensibly for the purpose of»co-oporative buying 1 Its members were required to take a secret oath, and soon after tho enactment of the army draft law, the official announcement said. "A strong German influence succeeded in inducing tho organisation to turn its efforts to combating conscription, and high-powered • rifles wero obtained to intimidate-per-sons subject to registration and the officials appointed to perform at the registration."

Ln soino Western cities there, were evidences of an effort to defeat tho registration, but tho Department of Justice announced that its representatives wero fully prepared to deal with tho offenders tinder existing law, ana the new Espionage Bill, which at tho time was nearing completion in Congress, would impose heavy penalties for such offonccs.

Washington admitted that scattered over the. country were sporadic efforts to interfere with registration, but officials of tho Government were disinclined to believe that such efforts were in any way connected. Tho Texas case, in which tho German influence was firmly established, and tho arrest of two mountaineers in south-western Virginia, woro tho most conspicuous instances in tho early stages of the repressive movemont against conscription. Tho two Virginians, William McCoy and J. W. l'hipps, both wellknown characters in "the feud region, were placed in gaol at Roanoko, and Government agents stated that they had complete evidenco to show that tho duo plotted organised rcsistanco to the draft, as well as a wholesalo attack upon tho landed people of tho vicinity whoso property they intended to divide between themselves.

"These arrests," said Attorney-Gen-eral Gregory, in an official statement referring to tho proceedings already j under way, "shoul<l be accepted by the country generally aa a warning against interfering with tho enforcement of tho provisions of tho now army law. They merely demonstrate what the Department of Justicc proposes to do in every case whero attempts aro made to lrinder or discourago registration-" A section of the Espionage Bill dealing with interference with army registration provides penalties of twenty years' imprisonment and 10,000 dollars fine, or both. CHICAGO ARRESTS. Three men and two women wero arrested in Chicago on a charge of conspiracy to defeat tho conscription law. Thcso characters wero declared to be tho leaders in that section of the countrv of tho anti-conscription conspiracy. Hinton chief investigator of tho Federal Bureau of said tho conspiracy of which ho had boon apprised was not con.fincu to Chicago, but extended through tho ontfro central district, over which ho had control. ' He said cvidenco of tho plot had been found in portions of "Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and lowa. In several towns in widely separated localities petitions for injunction to prevent tho individual town or Stato from enforcing tho Select Service Bill, wero filed by the so-called Federation for Democratic Control, and by many of tho Socialist organisations." Naturally the'pacifist societies wore to the foro in this movement.

Seattlo seems to have been a hotbed of the oppononts of conscription. There was a strong undercurrent of feeling there against the draft, but announcement was mado that anti-draft plots had been nipped in the bud thero by th oarrest of llulct _M. Wells, a city employee, former president of tho Seattlo Central Labour Council, and Sain Sadler, formerly connected with the Longshoremen's Union. The two men wore taken by United States secret scrvico operatives and charged with having participated in the circulation of alleged seditious literature, consisting of anti-draft circulars distributed throughout' Seattlo during" the previous fortnight. Loth men wero remanded and liberated on heavy bail. Wells is said to be at the hood of the Seattle branch of the "No-Conscription League," which has flooded Seattle with ..anti-draft handbills and other literature, and painted on fences and sidewalks, ir. large red letters, exhortations to "resist conscription." , Largo quantities of literature ajid pamphlets admonishing men of military ago to resist tho draft call by refusing to register, were in San Francisco and tho neighbouring city of Oakland, and passed over to tho Fodoral agents. The pamphlets urged tho young men not to go to Europe to bceomo ''cannon food, in the interest of tho capitalist class." THE KAISER'S HAND SEEN. Officials havo undertaken an exhaustive investigation to determine if tho wholo anti-draft sentiment is not rooted in extensive machinations of German propagandists in America having a central headquarters in New York. Colour to this theory is lent in 6omo degree by the marked similarity in the methods of procedure in widely separated communities. Some officials believo that the entire agitation was manufactured by German agents who, baffled in their original programme calling for an armed uprising of German reservists in tho United States upon America's entry into tho war, had turned their energies to this method of hindering the military plans of Uncle Sam. It is known that hundreds of German-Americans have surreptitiously crossed from the United States into. Mexico, but now this is impossible without a permit from Washington, and tho border is being closely Vatchcd to prevent a further exodus.

_Ono of the handbills issued the No-Conscription League, of New 'iork, is very tvpieal. and is a tirade against the United States Government, urging resistance against the draft registration and the draft itself. It is rubberstamped with the signature of Alexander Berkman, the anarchist leader, who once attempted to assassinate tho millionaire Henry C. Frick. On tho handbill is a drawing of what is called a "conscientious objector.'' stripped to tho waist and standing before a cannon. He holds a tattered shirt, labelled "ConseriDtion." in his hands.