A REMARKABLE WAR EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 8

A REMARKABLE WAR EFFORT

The interesting review in The Dominion yesterday of the progress of the great Empire air training scheme in Canada revealed the very substantial contribution being made in this connexion by the Canadian people. Yet this is only a part of the immense war effort being put forth by our oldest Dominion; an effort which shows how completely astray were the Nazi estimates of her attitude toward the war. The Germans, in fact, had actually counted upon a Canadian policy of isolation, or at the least, assistance to Britain short of sending armed forces overseas. This miscalculation, which led them to anticipate a lack of unity throughout the British Empire, no doubt arose from the complete freedom with which the pre-war crisis was discussed />ro and con in all British communities. There were sharp divisions of opinion in Canada. These disappeared when the war broke out, greatly to the surprise of the Germans. As in 1914. they failed to gauge the character of the British peoples. Canada’s magnificent war effort, as Mr. Grant Dexter tells us in a dispatch from Ottawa to the London Spectator, began from nothino- at all, so to speak. The army comprised 4500 officers and men; the navy, 1700 officers and ratings; the air force, 1 4000 officers and men, equipped with obsolete planes. By September last there were 155,000 in the Canadian Active Service Force, two divisions plus auxiliary troops were in England, and 100,000 were in active training in the Dominio’n for service wherever required; the Canadian militia . had been raised to 60,000, with the prospect of a further 300,000 within the ensuing 10 months. At the beginning of the war there were 15 ships in the Royal Canadian Navy. This number had been increased to 113, and a further 100 were in sight. The story of the air force training scheme has already been told. It is in the industrial sphere, however, that Canada is making her most surprising advance. War policy had to be suddenly recast as the result of the German successes in Europe. According to the Canadian Minister of Defence, Mr. Ralston, the policy followed until then was that while Canada was to rely on her own industrial resources for certain needs, essential war supplies were to be drawn from Britain and the United States. “With the sudden break-through on May 10,” said Mr. Ralston, “we were put very much on our own. These outside sources of supply which we had depended on were suddenly cut off or restricted because of Britain’s own needs. The facilities of Canadian industry, which had only been partially used, became instantly of vital importance.” Canada is now exporting war-plant far beyond any conceivable demand for the Canadian fighting services. As one example, quoted by Mr. Dexter, production of planes, not including engines, will reach an output rate of 3000 per annum next month. Also, from the newly-equipped war factories are emerging in a mounting stream rifles, machine-guns, anti-aircraft guns and carriages, and light and heavy field artillery. A war-effort of these dimensions, says the writer, "would be impossible without the strong and unwavering support of public opinion. ' The country is united in prosecuting the war to the limit of the nation’s resources in men, money and materials.” The value to Britain of this expanding output of war munitions must be immense and a very definite factor in the marshalling of the Eiiipire’s resources for wearing down and finally breaking the strength of the enemy. In our own way, according to our special resources, we in New Zealand should strive in emulation of Canada’s splendid war effort, and in the words of the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, in his New Year message yesterday, “let the measure of our contribution be in terms of service and willing sacrifices rather that' A.e terms and conditions on which out sei vice is rendered.”