CONSCRIPTION BILL IN CANADA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3110, 14 June 1917, Page 5

CONSCRIPTION BILL IN CANADA

THE MEASURE EXPLAINED SPEECH BY SIR ROBERT BORDEN Ottawa, June 12. The Military Service Act provides for a maximum of 100,000 men, in ten classifications, beginning with, single men aged twenty and upwards. All men in Canada aro assumed to be liable for service. Three tribunals are to be appointed to select them. Quo is a local tribunal, of -which the members will bo appointed not by the Government but by Parliament, and this body will allow exemptions for various caugfs. The second is an appeal tribunal, composed of provincial Judges; and the third is a final appeal to a Supreme Court Judge. Sir Kobert Borden, in introducing the Bill, reviewed the causes and course of

the war.- Canada determined in the earliest stages to do her' part, and had not receded from that determination. In Januaiv, 1910, Canada was pledged to snpply'half a million men. No opposition -was offered to the pledge, ■ whicfu .■mist be made Rood presently. Volunteering'had failed, and Canada must either recruit compulsorilv enough men to keep up tho four divisions at the front or allow "them to become extinct. Men were urgently, insistently, and imperatively needed for every branch of the Service, ftevcntv thousand men were required in • Iho next seven mouths to-maintain, the Canadian ArmT. He denied that the imperial authorities had in any way influenced his decision. The only difference between the proposed conscription and ■that provided under tho existing militia law lay in the selective principle in conscription, which would enable Canada to provide the men without dislocation of industries or agriculture. Tho measure provides 1 that anyone who, -when bis class is called out, .refuses to come, snail bo 'deemed guilty of desertion and liable to three years' imprisonment. He offered to receive any amendment Parliament de-sired.—Aus".-N.Z. Cable Assn.