PART III—CANADA AT HOME

CHAPTER XXI

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE EMPIRE

While the enlistment and equipment of the first contingent proceeded apace, all political ranks united for the war. Militarists and pacifists, fathoms apart in times of peace on the question of a Dominion navy, joined hands. Party lines, as in Great Britain, were instantly obliterated. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, former Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition in the Canadian Parliament, who, at the Imperial Conference of 1911, advocated the doctrine of colonial neutrality, declaring that Canada would not necessarily consider herself bound to take part in wars in which Great Britain might become involved, immediately threw the weight of his influence behind the Government. When the Dominion Parliament met August 19, 1914, to indorse Great Britain's participation in the war, Sir Wilfrid, after announcing that for the present all party lines had been abolished, said:

"So long as there is danger at the front it is our duty, more pressing than all other duties on this first day of debate, to let Great Britain, to let all the friends and foes of Great Britain, know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart, and that all Canadians stand behind the mother country, conscious and proud that she did not engage in war from selfish motives or for aggrandizement, but to maintain untarnished the honor of her name, to fulfill her obligations to her allies, to maintain her treaty obligations, and to save civilization from the unbridled lust of conquest and power."

Of the Canadian contingent he said it was the opinion of the British Government that the assistance of Canadian troops, humble though it might be, would be appreciated for their material and moral help, and would show the world that Canada, daughter of England, intended to stand by her in the conflict.

Canada's Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, had opened Parliament wearing a general's field uniform in khaki, and reminded the legislators that England was asking for their help. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in the speech he made, presented a motion proposing that the Dominion be prepared to carry out the duke's suggestion. The motion's seconder was the Premier, Sir Robert Borden, who said:

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the mother country. With firm hearts we abide the issue. The men who are going to the front from Canada are going as freemen from a free country to serve this Dominion and the Empire. We are giving our best to our country, and we are proud to do it." The press of Canada ardently indorsed the decision.

The Canadian Parliament immediately voted a war credit of $50,000,000, the minister of finance declaring that Canada was prepared to spend her last drop of blood and her last dollar in the defense of the country. This measure, the first contribution from Canada's war chest on behalf of the Empire, signalized an outpouring of gifts in kind, official or private, in rich profusion. From its storehouses the Government presented Great Britain with 98,000 bags of flour; the Provinces thereupon followed with individual gifts of supplies. Ontario gave 250,000 bags of flour; Manitoba, 50,000 bags; Quebec, 4,000,000 pounds of cheese; New Brunswick, 100,000 bushels of potatoes; Saskatchewan, 1,500 horses, valued at $250,000; Alberta, 500,000 bushels of oats; Prince Edward Island, 100,000 bushels of oats; British Columbia, 25,000 cases of salmon; while Nova Scotia at first offered 100,000 tons of coal, a cumbrous contribution, which was later converted to its cash equivalent. These governmental offerings evoked no less handsome responses to the call of the mother country from many cities and towns, corporations, and individuals. Great Britain's sinews of war were further reenforced by $100,000 from the Bank of Montreal; $500,000 from Mr. J. K. L. Ross of Montreal; a battery of machine guns from Mr. J. C. Eaton of Toronto; while Mr. Hamilton Gault of Montreal equipped and raised at his own expense a crack regiment composed entirely of men possessing war medals, and known as the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, or more properly as "Princess Pat's Pets." Having outfitted this force at a cost of $1,500,000, Mr. Gault did not take command, but joined it as one of its officers, while Mrs. Gault closed her home and left for the front as a nurse. Corporations also contributed funds for the war, and many employees gave a percentage of their salaries.

The women of Canada raised a fund of $285,960, one hundred thousand of which was for military hospital purposes, and the remainder for a naval hospital. The Canadian Red Cross sent a fully equipped field hospital and $50,000 to the British Red Cross Society. The Dominion Government provided $100,000 for a Canadian hospital in France. Farmers in different districts gathered vast stocks of flour and farming produce and sent them to England. The Canadians also raised their own Patriotic Relief Fund, devoted to caring for dependents of Canadians fighting at the front and providing a subsistence for their future. Eighteen cities raised considerably over $5,000,000 for this fund within ten weeks of the outbreak of the war. Montreal leading with $2,000,000, and Toronto with nearly $1,000,000.

In the wake of this munificence came an increased depression. Before the war a temporary check had come to a long and unexampled era of prosperity in Canada. An industrial crisis had set in, and the war brought it to an acute point. There had been an overstimulation of industrial enterprises; land values had been artificially inflated in the Northwest; and capital had been too easily raised. Capital now became scarce; Canadian promotions were viewed with suspicion; and some foreign investments were withdrawn. With the war many Canadians, who were working and giving whole-heartedly for the Empire, saw their enterprises facing ruin for want of capital they could not obtain. The stock exchanges were closed. Shares in some of the soundest industrial concerns were almost unsalable; others were offered for little more than half their market price of a few months before. Canadian Pacific shares, as an example, fell to $157-½; a little over a year previous to the war they had reached $254. Government and municipal undertakings found difficulty in obtaining funds to continue public works, and in consequence had to discharge hundreds of men. A number of establishments closed altogether; others continued on curtailed time and staffs.

Montreal felt an immediate depressing tendency on the outbreak of the war. In Toronto the financial stringency caused by the war brought a more serious phase to the labor situation in that city than had ever before been encountered. All lines of industry were affected, and thousands of men and women paid off. The enlistment of several thousands of Canadians did not appreciably relieve the congestion in the labor market. The building trade was suddenly paralyzed owing to the inability of contractors to obtain advances from banks and loan companies. The same check to all manner of business enterprises and construction work was felt in Port Arthur, Fort William, Sault Ste. Marie, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Prince Rupert, and Victoria. In all these cities the numbers of unemployed grew to extraordinary proportions. So, while military preparations were proceeding without pause, the Dominion, Provincial, and municipal authorities and business interests had to wrestle with the industrial situation. In due time distress was relieved, new enterprises were initiated, wholesale economies instituted, and vigorous efforts made to restore financial stability.

Canada looked suspiciously at the migratory Germans within her gates when the war broke out, but more assuringly at her settlers of German descent, who were not only domiciled but rooted on her soil. Of these Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke thus in the Canadian House of Parliament: "They have shown more than once their devotion to British institutions, but they would not be men if they did not in their hearts have a deep feeling for the land of their ancestry. Nobody blames them for that. There is nothing, perhaps, so painful as a situation in which the mind and heart are driven in opposite directions. Let me tell my fellow countrymen of German origin that Great Britain has no antagonism to the German people. We respect and admire them, but in the struggle for constitutional liberty which has been universal in Europe the German people have not made the same advances as some other nations. I am sure they will agree with me that if the institutions of the land of their ancestors were as free as those of the land of their adoption, this cruel war would never have taken place."

This sentiment brought a ready echo from Berlin, Ontario, which at least showed that that German colony shared the common aspirations of the Dominion. In a cablegram sent to Lord Kitchener the citizens of this Ontario German settlement said:

"Berlin, Ontario, a city of 18,000, of which 12,000 are German or of German descent, proposes to raise $75,000 or more for the National (Canadian) Patriotic Fund. The German people want to see militarism in Germany smashed for good, and the people set free to shape a greater and better Germany."

Pro-German sentiment undoubtedly lurked in these German Canadian communities, but it was quiescent and therefore harmless. Hence anti-German sentiment, which became demonstrative and dangerous upon the declaration of war by Great Britain, did not direct its attention to the German settlements, but to the consulates. Those at Vancouver and Winnipeg were stoned by mobs, and the German and Austrian consuls were requested to leave the country. There was a fear of spies, and a number of unaffiliated Germans were arrested and interned.

Then the popular imagination became scared by the remote possibility of an invasion of Canada by German and Austrian Americans. A feeling of nervousness over the supposed danger was reported along the Canadian frontier, though the fears of the border communities were accounted as groundless. The Government was fully cognizant of conditions along the border and military activities kept at least 40,000 men either mobilized or under arms in various parts of the country, composed of 10,000 as guards for home defense and 30,000 in training for oversea service. The danger, fanciful or not, caused extra precautions to be taken against any invasion across the Niagara River. Guards were stationed at Fort Erie, directly opposite Buffalo, and the whole river front from there to Niagara Falls and Queenstown was patrolled day and night by between 500 and 600 members of the newly organized home guards—in automobiles or on motorcycles. The guard on the Welland Canal was doubled.

There had been occasional trouble with alien workmen at munition factories, some of which, incidentally, were hemmed in by three successive fences of barbed wire, outside of which marched armed sentries. A railroad bridge in the Northwest had been blown up. Later a sentry on guard at a lock in the Soulanges Canal, near Montreal, had been shot.

Then followed an attempt to blow up the international bridge between Maine and New Brunswick. Here were sporadic manifestations which called for the services of the new home guards to protect railroads and canals, not only to safeguard Canadian commerce, but because any destruction of canals and bridges might seriously hamper the work of forwarding supplies to England. Much of England's food passed through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the wreck of one lock by explosion during the navigation season would be a serious disaster. After navigation closed the means of forwarding supplies and troops became even more limited. The Intercolonial Railroad, which is owned by the Government, was the only line extending to the Atlantic seaboard without crossing American territory, and for that reason was the sole artery available for the transport of troops. The entire 700 miles of its main line therefore had to be patrolled.

When found, however, alien enemies were well treated in Canada. They were but little molested, and unless under actual suspicion were allowed comparative freedom, being only required to register and report at certain intervals. Detention camps were subsequently established for those suspected of plotting and spying and for those in want. Some Germans and Austrians succeeded in fleeing the country when the war broke out. A ticket agent at Montreal was tried for treason—an offense punishable by death—on a charge that he had assisted them to leave Canada. German and Austrian workmen who did not leave were not permitted to depart, even to the United States, lest they should find means of returning to their own countries to join their armies. Most of them were unemployed; and as alien enemies were not supposed to be provided for by charitable organizations, they were assembled in camps to protect them from starvation.

Germany's attitude toward Canada was indicated in a statement credited to Count von Bernstorff, the German ambassador in Washington, regarding the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. The curious contention was therein made that Canada, by sending troops to fight against Germany, had violated that doctrine. The alleged violation was not very clear, unless, from the German viewpoint, it consisted in giving Germany cause for attacking Canada, which would at once test the effectiveness of the Monroe Doctrine. But this, the statement said, Germany had no intention of doing, nor of attempting to colonize Canada after the war if she were victorious.

Canada refused to take seriously this promise of Germany not to annex her. Most of the Canadian press waxed sarcastic, and those who dealt seriously with the German statement seized upon it as an excuse to beat the recruiting drum for the British army, especially the implication that, because Canada had sided against Germany, there was nothing in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent her landing an armed force in Canada. "Possibly he" (Count von Bernstorff), commented the Montreal "Herald," "expects the United States will now go out of its way and tell him how cordially they would welcome such delightful neighbors on the Canadian side of 3,000 miles of unfortified territory."

The unexampled conditions created by the war with Canada, of which the foregoing is a survey—her activities, turmoil, welding of political cleavages, industrial sacrifices, benevolences, and needless precautions against unsubstantial dangers—merely featured her real achievement. This was the creation of an army in being for the European battle field.

PART IV—CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES

CHAPTER XXII

BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME

When the war broke out in 1914, Great Britain looked to Canada for a supply of munitions as well as men. Not a shell, cartridge, nor fuse had ever before been made by a Canadian manufacturer. A new industry immediately sprang into being, assuming quite large proportions by the middle of 1915, by which time there were approximately over 400 establishments in full blast. From a modest output in 1914 representing a value of $28,164, the Canadian munitions factories piled up a record of production which stood at over $1,000,000,000 in value with the war's close in November, 1918.

The Imperial Ministry of Munitions, which threw out its lines from London to obtain munitions whence it could, asked much of Canada and got much. "Who would have dreamed," said a member of the British Government in 1915, "that Canada would have produced more munitions than any country in the world except Germany prior to the war?" Of the projectiles used by all the British armies in the third year of the war, Canada was producing 55 per cent of the shrapnel shells; 42 per cent of the 4.5-inch shells; 27 per cent of the 6-inch; 15 per cent of the 8-inch; and 16 per cent of the 9.2-inch. In fact, when the Germans complained that the Allied armies were being munitioned by the United States, they lost sight—or did not know—of the fact that many of the shells they objected to as American really came from Canada. In addition to shells and fuses and related products, there were vast exports of explosives and chemicals, metals, and spruce and fir for airships and other purposes. The war contracts which started all this activity were spread over a thousand contractors and called for the employment of from 200,000 to 300,000 workers.

The table of achievement, as it stands in the Government records, was as under

VALUE OF MUNITIONS AND MATERIALS EXPORTED FROM CANADA

QUANTITIES EXPORTED

This table bears a little amplification, more especially as to the disposition of the huge volume of lumber logged. Much of it, as will be seen, went into the manufacture of aeroplanes. A plant at Toronto, financed with British capital, but organized and operated by Canadians, manufactured 2,050 complete machines, turning out 350 a month. The airships represented a value of $6,700,000, and required over 2,000 workers in their construction. The plant also provided a number of flying boats for the United States Navy.

Canada's shipbuilding record was no less notable. Her yards turned out 103 vessels (45 steel, 58 wooden) with an approximate dead-weight carrying capacity of 367,367 tons. In addition, the Department of Naval Service undertook to build a number of small warcraft for various Allied governments. These little vessels were produced at various points on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. For the British Government Canadian yards supplied 12 submarines, 60 armed trawlers, 100 armed drifters, 550 coastal patrol motor boats, and 24 steel lighters for use in Mesopotamia; for the French Government, 6 armed trawlers and 36 coastal patrol motor boats; for the Italian Government, 6 submarines; and for the Russian Government one large armed ice breaker and some submarines.

The outstanding feature of all the munition making was, as the table shows, the production of shells. It needed nimble feminine fingers to turn out the very nub of a shell, namely, the fuse. Consider the record of a huge factory near Montreal, which engaged in loading and assembling time and percussion fuses, completing in all 8,400,000. The work involved the blending of fast and slow burning powders; forcing the powder into the time rings under a pressure of 68,000 pounds per square inch; assembling the fifty-two component parts which made up the complete fuse; the packing, checking, and shipping the completed product. Women became expert in the work of fuse making, which meant being careful even to the 1-1000th of an inch.

"A shell with a defective fuse," wrote one observer of their work, "is worse than no shell at all. It may fail to explode, it may explode in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or in the wrong way." Canadian women made fuses that made the perfect shell. Not only in fuse making did they excel; heavy work became easy when machines, at the suggestion of the women themselves, were changed in position. Finally there was no difference in the work done by men and women. Within five weeks of the time they first heard of a 9.2-inch shell 400 women in one factory were successfully turning them out, performing every operation from that subsequent to the fabrication of the metal to and including that of shipping.

Before October, 1916, no women had ever worked in Canada as producers in a metal plant. There was a prejudice against employment of women. The need of shells and the need of shell makers dissipated prejudice and put women into Canadian munitions plants. At first they were given the light work to do and were set to tending a machine; work that required little intelligence on the part of the operator, but was extremely trying on the nerves. It soon became apparent that women excelled in work that required accuracy and delicate handling.

Women worked cheerfully and long. In the time of greatest need there were 35,000 women at work in the munitions factories of Canada; after the first call there was no shortage of women help. For various good reasons it was decided to give a badge without charge to any woman who worked for thirty days continuously. For each additional six months' service a bar was added. In all, 18,999 badges and 8,032 service bars were used in Canada. They were earned as follows: One bar, 4,003; two bars, 1,135; three bars, 447; four bars, 84; five bars, 16; six bars, 2.

In addition a commemorative badge was awarded to all workmen in the various plants who served continuously for a year or more. Far from disturbing labor conditions the entry of women into munitions plants aroused the most wonderful cooperation and enthusiasm and actually dispelled what might have been a serious drawback in "serving the man who serves the gun."

It began with a Shell Committee, composed of honorary members, which was formed when the British Government decided that Canada was a good field for producing shrapnel shells, especially as basic steel—the only steel Canada turned out—proved serviceable for shell making. The Shell Committee placed contracts on behalf of the British War Office, but the volume of business expanded to such a degree that the committee only gave place to a board directly responsible to the Imperial Ministry of Munitions. The work of this Munitions Board developed a number of auxiliary departments, directed by business men located in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, who handled enormous purchases of materials for use in munition making, supervised construction, conducted logging operations, and checked and rectified all engineering gauges. The forging of steel had to be arranged and the forgings and components distributed to the machining plants situated in the various Provinces. Shipbuilding required the acquisition of much timber and supplies for the hulls and the construction of engines and boilers.

These national plants were erected at Trenton, Renfrew, and Nobel for producing nitrocellulose, cordite, and T. N. T., with acid plants, and a factory for turning out acetone and methyl-ethyl-ketone. In the forging operations steel turnings had to be melted in electric furnaces, the steel thus subsequently produced being converted into forgings. The manufacture of aeroplanes for the Royal Air Force included a constructional section which built all aerodromes, machine shops, barracks, and officers' quarters at the various camps. The logging operations, which were conducted in British Columbia, produced spruce and fir for aeroplanes, and called for fleets of tugs which delivered the logs to cutting mills. Every kind of material that could be made available for war purposes was explored for by the Munitions Board in areas of natural resources hitherto undeveloped, with the result that industries new to Canada were established. One development was an extensive production of alloys used in the manufacture of high-speed cutting tools. Another achievement was the creation of the explosive and propellent industry.

The manufacture of munitions spread over the whole of Canada, with the exception of Prince Edward Island—which is exclusively agricultural—and even invaded the island of Newfoundland. From the first factory in the east to the last factory on the Pacific coast was a journey of 4,500 miles.

"Steel," it was recorded, "was purchased wherever it could be obtained. It was shipped 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 miles to have it forged. From the forging plant it was shipped back again 500 or 600 miles or forwarded 2,000 miles to machining plants. Other component parts were purchased from manufacturers as far south as Florida. They were sent to remote points in order that every Canadian manufacturer engaged in munitions contract might sustain delivery of finished shells."

The policy pursued in all the complex operations thus briefly outlined aimed at the elimination of the middleman and dealing direct with those who performed the work. Raw materials of every description were purchased and passed on from one contractor to another, saving the contractor large investments of capital otherwise necessary to produce complete shells, and enabling a proper distribution of the materials available to insure maximum production. Subsequently the war munitions business was placed on a competitive basis.

All the work accomplished was due to the initiative of the Imperial Munitions Board, which was presided over by Sir Joseph Flavelle. There was, of course, a governing stimulus in all it did, namely, the needs of the war, which evolved the board's creation on broad lines when, in November, 1915, the British Government placed munition contracts in Canada amounting to $300,000,000. Manufacturers adapted their plants to munition making; thousands of men and women toiled at the lathe and in places of great responsibility and danger; patriotic Canadians freely gave their services when called upon with no other reward than the satisfaction of serving the state. The board's administrative staff numbered close to a thousand men and women, and of them Sir Joseph Flavelle declared that no body of men charged with serious duty ever received more loyal and efficient support. The same tribute was bestowed on the great home army of eager participants in munition making of all ranks, though, like the good workers they all were, they found duty its own reward.

An important factor in the manufacture of munitions was the work of the Canadian War Trade Board. Its functions braced the supervision and control of the Dominion's industries, and the direction of all essential trades, occupations, and materials to the conduct of the war. It was especially valuable in reaching outside of Canada for needed materials for munitions, particularly from the United States.

The War Trade Board was born of a crisis. Until the United States entered the war Canada had been able to obtain raw materials and half-finished products necessary in the munitions industry without difficulty from her southern neighbor. The situation changed when the United States began to conserve every raw material and product which could be used in the war. To present her case effectively Canada had to organize on national lines. The two countries were not independent, American industries needing nickel matter, asbestos, pulp, and power from Canada, and Canadians requiring pig iron, iron ore, steel sheets, coal, cotton, etc., from the United States. By both countries appointing a War Trade Board composed of outstanding business men in both countries, and by means of a Canadian War Mission established in Washington, the two countries were able to present a solid industrial front to the enemy and still preserve their respective national interests intact.

Drastic elimination of nonessentials was the first essential so that the railroads of the continent and the shipping of the world could devote their energies to carrying necessaries for sustaining the Allied war effort. The Canadian Board saw that no company imported any material when stocks in Canada could be utilized for its needs. This was not only to fulfill its obligations to the United States War Trade Board, but to keep down imports to the lowest possible figure so that Canada's trade balance with the United States should be as little adverse as possible. For the same reason a number of imports were placed on the restricted list.

Every day from all over Canada came anxious men and constant streams of letters and telegrams informing the board as to stocks of raw materials on hand, and explaining the needs. The War Trade Board undertook to see that the materials were forthcoming, if possible, and to secure them from within Canada or from the United States or elsewhere. It purchased and distributed tin plate in Canada, negotiated for the reopening of dormant blast furnaces and the construction of new undertakings for the production of pig iron, and obtained huge supplies required from the United States. It controlled the sale, purchase, and use of platinum. It financed the purchase and allotment through the Wool Commission of 46,208 bales of Australian wool weighing 15,573,542 pounds and valued at ten and a half million dollars, as well as five and a half million dollars' worth of tops and noils from the United Kingdom. It had power to pay bounties on the production of linen yarns in Canada. It also controlled the production and distribution of iron and steel and their products in Canada, and was empowered to take over and carry on the management of chrome ore-producing properties for a period of five years.

The Board also served as a clearing house for industrial information to manufacturers, keeping in constant touch with the various industries, either individually or through such bodies as the Imperial Munitions Board, the Canadian Wool Commission, the War Purchasing Commission, the Canadian Tanners' Council, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and the Canadian Wool Growers' Association.

Had it not been for the existence of such a body, there were many raw materials and products which Canadians could not have secured at all, as the British, United States, and Australian Governments would not have permitted their shipment but for assurances as to the use to which they would be put or of a substantial cash advance. The shortage of shipping made it necessary in some cases to secure a vessel to go to South America or some other country to get materials urgently needed in Canada, and only a government body could have induced the admiralty to permit it.

The securing of steel plates for Canadian shipbuilding industries was one of the board's most arduous and continuous tasks. Profiteering in steel-plate and boiler-tube stocks was sternly checked in the cases where complaints were well founded. Canadian steel companies were induced to make all the car plates necessary for the Government's car program. The pyrites exports were increased to meet the needs of the sulphuric acid makers in the United States. Nitroglycerine was conserved by restricting the content in commercial explosives.

The commandeering powers of the board were not often exercised, its authority to do so alone being amply sufficient to obtain the ends for which it was created. Most of the money made by the board was in connection with its wool purchases. The money obtained for the tops and noils from the United Kingdom it sent to the British Treasury. With the proclamation of peace the board passed out of existence.

CHAPTER XXIII

FROM TRENCHES TO FARMS

The war left Canada, as it did other countries, with an army of demobilized men, able and disabled, who needed Government help to reestablish themselves in civilian life. For soldier citizens who were attracted by farming, an extensive land settlement policy was devised, and to a large extent its application solved one of the Government's problems in affording thousands of ex-soldiers the means of settling on the land, of which Canada had more to offer than anything else. "The corner stone of Canada's industrial fabric is and must continue to be the land," said Arthur Meighen, M. P., the Minister of the Interior, "and to utilize this heritage to the best advantage—to build into it and upon it as large a proportion as possible of the best blood and spirit of our country, thus solving a problem of reconstruction than which none is more vital in its bearing on national well-being—is what is sought to be achieved."

The war, in effect, had created an opportunity for land development by producing a colony of soldier settlers who readily turned to farming after their open-air life in the battle areas. But the Government was careful not to subject them to the hazards and isolation which the ordinary, prewar settler had to face. Only land of good value, well located, and of such fertility as to insure profitable returns, was allocated among them. A search was made through the prairie Provinces for areas suitable for soldier settlement contained in forest reserves or held under grazing leases. The Government held a number of these reserves so that men whose demobilization was deferred could have an equal opportunity with those who were discharged first. Inadequate means of communication affected the disposition of immense areas of arable land, which would otherwise have been available for soldiers. But it was decided to develop and close in settlement only those areas that were contiguous to existing or promoted railroad lines. The Government considered it inadvisable to encourage the veterans of the Great War to settle on free homesteads at a greater distance than fifteen miles from market facilities. This policy was especially designed for soldiers who labored under some physical disability and who were in receipt of pensions, and for such settlers small holdings, close to large centers of population, were selected.

Canada had early anticipated the problem of rehabilitating her returned soldiers. The Soldier Settlement Board was created long before the Armistice, and was in good working order when the time for demobilization arrived. Hence, when the stream of returned soldiers began to flow toward the fertile farm lands which the Dominion Government opened to them for ownership and development, the machinery for so settling the incomers was ready for operation.

The Government not only settled soldiers on homesteads, but lent them money to stock and equip their farms and afforded them training knowledge. They could borrow up to $4,500 on the purchase of land; up to $2,000 on the purchase of live stock, implements, and other equipment; and up to $1,000 on the erection of buildings and other permanent improvements. This made a total of $7,500, all of which, except the $2,000 for equipment, was repayable in twenty-five years on the amortization plan. The acquisition of farm equipment was rendered easier by an arrangement with agricultural implement firms, who undertook to charge specially low prices to soldier settlers. The Government also employed experts to purchase horses, cattle, sheep, and swine at the best prices obtainable, and resold them to settlers at the price paid for them. Lumber dealers in the western Provinces undertook, by arrangement with the Government, to provide lumber at prices considerably below those charged the public. A soldier settler had similar facilities for erecting a home on his land, the Government providing plans for standard houses of four types, ranging from a modest dwelling suitable for a bachelor settler to more commodious and convenient six-roomed houses.

Before the stage of actual occupation was reached in the case of settlers lacking sufficient farming experience, they were placed in agricultural training centers, especially equipped, where they obtained a practical knowledge of farm work, or else with selected farmers throughout the Dominion, who regarded them as students eager to know how to run a farm rather than as mere farm hands. The prospective farmer's womankind, if likewise unversed in farm work and house management, received the needful instruction from the home branch of the Soldier's Settlement Board. In order to enable him to tide over his non-productive period of training, the Government made allowances to a returned soldier both for himself and for the support of any dependents he might have. He likewise received free board as well as free tuition, and if engaged with a farmer was entitled to retain any remuneration his services yielded. While on a farm, representatives of the board visited him to ascertain his progress, so that they could determine when he was qualified to take over a farm of his own.

The railroads, like the farmers and agricultural firms, cooperated with the Government in assisting returned soldiers to settle upon the land. A special low transportation rate of one cent per mile, applying to the whole of Canada except northern Alberta, was fixed, but the prospective farmer was not entitled to the reduction for ordinary journeys. The rate only applied to the soldier's first trip to work with a farmer, or to attend an agricultural school or to look for land, or for a return journey home to transport his family and chattels to his homestead. Choice of land and location lay wholly with the soldier, but was subject to the judgment of the board's land inspectors, who passed upon its value, and determined whether it was suitable for the purchaser and was worth the price. When an inspector approved the soldier's selection, the land was purchased by the board and sold to the applicant.

Once established in his new environment, the ex-soldier was not left to his own devices. The board's inspectors and supervisors regularly visited him—to give any practical guidance he might require, while local agricultural bodies and individual farmers volunteered their aid to assist him and smooth his path to success. But a condition precedent to his establishing himself on the land with Government aid was that he must first prove his military eligibility and also reveal a capacity, during his tenure at a training college or with a farmer, for owning and operating a farm of his own. That done, the Government lost no time in smoothing the way for him.

As to his army qualifications, an applicant must either have been a discharged member of the expeditionary forces of Canada, Great Britain, or of any of the self-governing Dominions, or a resident of Canada—who had joined the Allied forces at the time of enlistment. In either case he must have served outside the country in which he enlisted or in a theater of actual war; but he was also eligible as a discharged member of the Canadian expeditionary forces who had not served overseas, but who had become incapacitated from military service and entitled to a pension. Widows of members of both forces who had died in actual service were entitled to the same facilities to settle on the land.

The Government's land scheme for soldiers proved a great success. By November 1, 1919, over 40,000 men had applied for the benefits of the Government's offer, and over 30,000 had obtained qualification certificates after receiving tuition at training centers or with farmers. The scheme as a whole involved an expenditure of upward of $100,000,000.

Canada has regarded her returned soldiers as her wards, especially the disabled. Governmental guardianship could go no further. Her scale of pensions, for example, is more than one-third higher than that paid by any other nation. Any soldier or sailor disabled in the service of the Empire became entitled to a pension if medical attention failed to restore his normal capacities for earning a livelihood. The pension was neither a gift, a gratuity, nor a reward for service. The Government called it "compensation for disability suffered through the war," and its amount bore no relation to the calling previously followed by the recipient. A man totally disabled received $720; if married, the amount was $900, with $144 for the first child and $96 for subsequent children. Men totally helpless could also receive a special allowance of $450. The disabled received most of the pension fund, fully three-fourths going to them, while the remaining fourth went to the dependents of deceased service men.

There were twenty classes of disability pensions, according to the degree of the disability, which was the decisive factor in each case. No reduction was made because of the recipient's earning powers or because of his actual earnings. His physical disability, whatever it was—not his ability to support himself—determined the amount. He became a pensioner because of the loss or the lessening of a natural function of the body, and the pension lasted as long as the disability did. When the disability ceased, the pension also ceased. Medical reexaminations were made periodically so that pensions could be adjusted in accordance with the developments in a soldier's condition.

The payment of pensions, which was undertaken by the Board of Pension Commissioners, involved an annual expenditure of $30,000,000. It developed a largely and highly complex business machine; which had its beginnings early in the war period, growing from a small staff of 34 members, handling 2,700 pensions, to a clerical force of 1,300 and a pension roll of 80,000. District offices were established in the large centers of the Dominion to afford discharged men convenient bureaus of information. Medical officers were attached to each office, also Government visitors, who were detailed to call on a pensioner at least once annually. A pensioner's fitness to remain a pensioner was thus ascertained, in order to prevent any improper expenditure of pension money.

Then there was the war-service gratuity to which members of all ranks in the Canadian army were entitled upon discharge, after being in active service outside the Dominion. The payment covered six months and served as a send-off to each demobilized man to enable him to live in comfort pending his settling down to a civil occupation by his own efforts or through Government aid. The gratuities were based on a sliding scale, dependent on length of service; but a minimum payment was also determined on. It was fixed at $70 a month for the service men without dependents and $100 a month for those who had any. Thus, sergeants, corporals, lance corporals and privates without dependents received $420 for six months, or $70 monthly, and those with families, $600 for six months, or $100 monthly. Where the scale of pay was higher than this minimum it was based on the rate of pay of rank and the length of service. The war gratuity was really a continuation of army pay for six months after discharge.

CHAPTER XXIV

KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING

Among the various voluntary war organizations working in Canada, or among the Canadian troops overseas, the most extensive in its scope was the Canadian Patriotic Fund. It was a form of war relief peculiar to Canada, a product of public initiative, entirely unrelated to the Government, being inspired by individual sympathy with the individual needs of service men and by the intimate and old-fashioned neighborly spirit that made all men brothers in an emergency. As a Canadian innovation, arising from the Dominion's own particular problems, and reflecting in a tangible form her characteristics as a nation, the fund was nation-wide in its workings, both in the source of its contributions and their distribution. It represented a voluntary "drive" for money which continued throughout the war period, and its administration was no less notable than its collection. Throughout the Dominion there was a coordination of effort and sympathies on the part of the fund's dispensers, with a complete elimination of overlapping and its attendant waste of time, money, and energy.

The Fund in every respect was a national organization covering all the Provinces except Manitoba (which created a fund of its own), and its object was to assist, wherever necessary, the dependent relatives resident in Canada of Allied soldiers and sailors serving in the war. It was administered locally through committees serving gratuitously, who, while they acted on general instructions from headquarters, also had discretionary powers in approving applications and naming the amount to be granted. As to the service of the Fund, from June, 1916, to November, 1918, it yielded an average amount of $900,000 a month for relief work and provided assistance to between 50,000 and 60,000 families. The Fund represented voluntary contributions from everybody in the Dominion and reached the impressive figure of nearly $43,000,000.

The dispensers of the Fund had one thought in mind. It was the home the service man had left behind him, with special recognition of the size of a man's family and local conditions affecting the cost of living, both being determining factors in the budget making necessary for the right and equitable distribution of such a fund. It was an additional prop for the support of soldiers' families in the absence of the breadwinner, in that it provided a supplementary income to that allowed by the Government.

On enlistment the wife of every soldier received from the War Ministry a separation allowance, originally of $20, later increased to $25. She also received a part of her husband's assigned pay, which differed according to rank. The two payments averaged $35 a month, a sum inadequate for the upkeep of a home, and hence the beneficence of the work of the Fund in augmenting the income of a soldier's wife or other home folks to the level of the cost of living became apparent. It supplemented the home income at the point of deficiency, adding to the Government allowance a sufficient sum to overcome difficulties of living due to local conditions and to the size of the families. Instead of $35 a month, a typical Canadian soldier's family, consisting of a wife and two children, received about $51.25 a month from all sources with the help of the Patriotic Fund's disbursements.

One of its prime objects lay in inspiring the sympathetic atmosphere and attitude so necessary in war times. This object was achieved by reason of the character of the Fund's personnel, especially in local branches, where much, if not all, of the executive work was in the hands of warm-hearted, patriotic women, who did not spare themselves, but gave of their best to the cause they had made their own.

"Keeping the home fires burning" had an appealing sound. The neighborly spirit which animated the giving of contributions kept the home fires burning in that the giving was not spasmodic but sustained, enabling a continuous expansion of the Fund. It was this "touch of nature that makes the whole world kin"—that made all Canada kin—which endeared the Fund to every Canadian, rich and poor alike, and alone accounted for the great response made to every appeal for contributions. Every Canadian regarded his participation in the fund as a personal promissory note; he felt that he was "backing" the service man in a very near and individual sense.

Once the monthly output exceeded the income. In 1915 the monthly output increased from $175,000 to $325,000, which showed how Canadians regarded the Fund. These were anxious times for the Fund executive, and it was at this time that the value of making the appeal Dominion-wide became apparent. Reviewing the difficulties of this period in handling the Fund, Sir Herbert Ames wrote:

"As a rule recruiting was greatest in Provinces least favorably situated financially. Common service, common sacrifice, the principle of giving money or men saved the day. By 1916 the needs of the fund were placed at $8,000,000. 'Give till it hurts,' became the slogan. A systematic allotment of each Province's share of the total contribution was made. Ontario was asked for $4,500,000; Quebec, $1,500,000; Maritime Provinces, $700,000; and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, $500,000. Every Province was subdivided; each city or town was asked to assume its share. Publicity was given the campaign through newspapers, posters, leaflets, buttons, the Speakers' Patriotic League, and skilled organizers of campaigns. The close of the year showed an increase of 20 per cent in demands on the Fund and an increase of 50 per cent in the amount contributed over the amount asked in the campaign. On New Year's Day the Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, asked for $8,000,000; Canada's answer was $11,375,345. Since June, 1916, the fund has expended an average of $900,000, which is quite timely help to 165,000 individuals."

Following the campaign of 1916 the responses became more and more generous. The Provinces and the larger cities reached great heights in giving. But while individuals contributed checks for princely amounts, the bulk of the Fund was provided by the small wage earners. "This showed," said Sir Herbert Ames, "how thoroughly the Fund represented Canada's war spirit."

British Columbia led all other Provinces in recruiting according to population. It was essentially a Province of wage earners; yet its contributions to the Fund, sustained year after year, were remarkable. In the mountain districts it was the established practice among miners and smelters to contribute "a shift a month" to the fund. The town of Trail, with a population of 4,000, contributed $50,000 a year, or $12.50 per capita. Rossland, with a similar population, gave $36,000 a year. Headly, with a population of 400, gave $9,000 a year or $22.50 per head. Greenwood, numbering 600, donated $15,000, or $25 per head; Phoenix, with 1,200, yielded $18,000, while Silverton, with 800, produced $16,000 a year. In some districts the workmen instructed the superintendents to deduct 3-½ per cent, or one day's pay, per month, from their wages.

The response from sparsely settled districts was no less generous; but there was a difficulty in gathering collections over scattered rural communities. They did not, however, allow this obstacle to deprive them from sharing in the good work, and accordingly requested their councils to levy assessments for the fund, whereby rural contributions could be gathered and equalized. The contribution of such rural council, thus obtained, represented the various individual contributions of the constituents and was voluntary. In this way the rural communities contributed in 1917 the sum of $3,000,000.

Besides these collective efforts, there was scarcely a community that did not furnish examples of self-denying generosity by individuals or groups, some of whom could not afford the sacrifice. The shareholders of an Ontario fire insurance company voted its entire dividend of $50,000 to the Patriotic Fund. Near Vancouver an old lighthouse keeper raised flowers and sold them to tourists, raising therefrom nearly $1,000, which he presented to the Fund. Among contributors who found their highest gratification in denying themselves in order to help the Fund were the Gaspe fishermen, lumberjacks from the Quebec bush, cheese makers, road makers, Indians, and an Eskimo. Nearly $12,500 was sent in by Indians on the reserves. From Herschell's Island, within the Arctic Circle came a gift of $20 from the Eskimo Chikchagalook. Canadianized people of German birth and descent were equally liberal.

The "million a month" which the Fund organizers aimed at was approached by voluntary individual generosity like the instances cited and countless others. The nation-wide support given to the Fund constituted a free-will offering of the whole people standing behind its soldiers. It was a people's own movement, close to their hearts, and was successfully conducted without Government control or participation, an achievement in which the Fund's executives took pride, as efforts had been made to bring it under federal supervision.

CHAPTER XXV

REMAKING MEN

By the close of 1919, Canada had 20,000 ex-soldiers—blind or maimed or otherwise disabled—under training in the arts of peace. They were mostly men who labored under such handicaps from the effects of wounds and other ordeals of war that they could not resume their former occupations. The Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment took them in hand after their discharge from hospital treatment and fitted them, by vocational training, for new callings that made them economically independent. Meantime, the men drew pay and allowances from the Government ranging from $60 to $150, according to the number of their dependents. The expenditure on this work of rehabilitating damaged men was regarded as a national investment, as it encouraged the disabled soldier to become a worker and producer.

Every ex-soldier, burdened with a disability to follow the calling he pursued before he joined the colors, became entitled to vocational training, free of charge, in any trade or profession of his own choice in which his disability would not be a handicap. Universities, technical and agricultural schools, and plants of leading manufacturers—where industrial training could be acquired under actual shop conditions—became centers of instruction. Provision was then made for both theoretical and practical knowledge, which was imparted in conjunction. Similar training was also carried on in hospitals and convalescent homes where the condition of the patients permitted.

Vocational training was a new field of Government work, a sort of uncharted sea, and until disabled men began to flow back from the battle front the Canadian Government had little information upon which to build a working policy. But the situation suggested its own solution. The first obvious need was convalescent hospitals, and a chain of such institutions duly appeared from coast to coast. Then the employment bureaus came into being, and the recovering patients, equipped with the vocational reeducation which the Government instituted, made the hospitals sources of supply for the labor market.

What was the status of a disabled man during the stage of convalescence and rehabilitation? He was taken in hand to be refitted for civil life. The Canadian Government therefore decided that he was no longer a soldier, to be supported with his dependents during his period of training on military pay and allowance. He became a discharged man and his maintenance was provided for as a civilian. The Government recognized that the duty of replacing a man in civil life as a useful member of the community was not a military function. To succeed as a civilian he had to be demilitarized, for the reason that while in service a soldier or sailor sank his individuality and lived under orders; his return to civil life required his restoration as an individual subject to the obligation, like other civilians, of making his way by his own initiative. The demilitarization of a disabled ex-service man, who, anyway, had only belonged to the army during the war period, was therefore regarded as an important duty of Government. In undertaking his reeducation, it "staked" him for resuming a civilian pursuit, and in doing so placed him on a footing very different from his previous army status. The course of reeducation given to a disabled man nevertheless remained a reward of valor, but it was also a recognition of the needs of a nation at peace, which required that discharged men should be restored as far as possible to the fullest usefulness as civilians.

Another element in vocational retraining was its formative purpose. A man was not "made over" in the sense of giving him a new occupation. His tuition was not complete enough for that. It rather directed him toward a new field of industry by equipping him with the groundwork, and he had to have the will to succeed and to overcome his handicap if his actual reeducation and replacement in a suitable civilian position was to be accomplished. The way was smoothed for his doing so by the avoidance of any compulsory scheme of reeducation. A man himself "elected" his course, though many disabled men needed guidance to protect them from choosing some line of work by caprice or impulse. In such cases a disabled man's vocational advisers endeavored to direct his choice in the light of all the information that could be drawn from his educational and industrial history. The essential thing kept in mind was that a man's previous education and experience should not be "scrapped" but rather made to form a foundation or background for his new occupation. Hence, a disabled man was trained when practicable for some new branch of his former occupation or for some allied or related occupation.

The problem was not confined to rehabilitating a man lacking a limb or eyesight. The blind, in fact, were few, compared with men suffering from other injuries, while the war cripple for the most part was a sound man in other respects. His physique survived his deficiency of limb; hence he was not broken in health and his condition revealed nothing of the invalid. More than that, only a small proportion of the disabled men invalided home were suffering from the loss of a limb. Out of nearly 30,000 who returned to Canada up to June, 1918, less than 1,500 had undergone a major amputation.

A survey of the first groups of returned disabled men, moreover, revealed that most of them were able to return to their former occupations.

The difficulty was not one of numbers; it related to the individual. From the point of view of its complexity, the success of the project of providing vocational reeducation for new occupations was dependent on the disabled men's response to the service proffered. Their immediate need was interesting occupation, as far as medical requirements allowed, while undergoing convalescent treatment in a hospital. A wide range of opportunities for occupational work developed during this hospital period, and its value to the patient was manifold. From the therapeutic standpoint alone, any kind of occupation was serviceable to the mind and body. It was also disciplinary in that it protected disabled men from moral and social deterioration—a danger always present during long periods of idleness—and it was of additional value to the institution itself as a check on the tendency to spoil returned men by overattention, active and interesting pursuits having been found to be the best antidote to such an inclination.

The field of diversions was wide; a patient could easily absorb himself in some task to the extent of his energies. The hospitals provided classrooms for general educational work; commercial training workshops for arts and crafts; a variety of mechanical and other occupations, outdoor work in gardening and poultry-keeping.

A number of men who started training courses in new callings did not continue them. Some were ambitious men whom the new training had readily stabilized for civil life and who had found positions before completing their courses. Others were released during the summer months for intensive farming to meet the urgent demand for greater food production. The clerical work of the military department also absorbed a large number, interrupting the pursuit of their commercial studies. A recurrence of their malady invalidated others and necessitated hospital attention, and beyond these were a proportion of unstable men of restless temperament who could not readily resume civilian occupation.

Over and above these were disabled men here and there who displayed an unwillingness to study for new callings, fearing that overcoming their handicap would mean a curtailment of pension by increasing their earning power. Injured French and German soldiers had revealed a similar indisposition to undergo vocational retraining lest their pensions be withdrawn. The Canadian Government took an indulgent view of this feeling and adopted a new army regulation providing that no deductions should be made from the amount of pension awarded owing to a pensioner undertaking work or qualifying himself in a new industry. As already indicated, a man was pensioned because of his disability in the open labor market, and was not determined by his earning capacity. As it worked out, his earning power in many cases was greatly improved by his vocational reeducation—to his own advantage, but even more so to the advantage of his country.

The Canadian Government was early in the field in taking steps for the rehabilitation of the disabled, having provided working solutions to the problem long before the Interallied Conference considered the subject in 1918. The task grew beyond the scope of the Military Hospitals Commission, and a permanent ministry was found necessary. Especially as the work, following demobilization, also embraced caring for the undisabled discharged soldier in search of opportunity for reemployment. Free employment offices were opened in every center from the Atlantic to the Pacific and thither thousands of requests came from ex-soldiers for information as to channels open for obtaining positions. The result was some 200,000 or more interviews, and the reinstating of nearly 35,000 men up to September, 1919, out of 53,000 applicants. This scheme of reestablishing uninjured men in civil occupation following their demobilization had its beginning in a questionnaire sent to all Canadian troops abroad, asking them to state their intentions regarding employment on their return to Canada. The questionnaires were distributed from Ypres to the Vosges Mountains, from the Rhine to the English Channel, and throughout England and Scotland. Within two weeks of the signing of the Armistice a complete survey of the employment situation was obtained and transmitted to Government agencies in charge of the dispersal areas in Canada.

It was all part of a publicity campaign for enlightening the troops as to what the Government was prepared to do for them to facilitate their reinstatement in civil life. Lectures were delivered to them in camp, thousands of specially prepared pamphlets were distributed among them, while the Government's plans were otherwise made known through advertisements in newspapers and periodicals which circulated among the troops, as well as by means of moving pictures. Government representatives also accompanied men on homeward transports and dispensed information regarding the outlook for employment in the field that appealed to them.

With the help of the Labor Department the free employment offices were established in eighty-nine cities and towns. Each office had a special representative of the Information and Service Branch of the Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment, who was at the service of all demobilized soldiers seeking employment. He "connected the wires," opening up communications with employers of labor and inducing them to favor ex-soldiers in filling vacancies on their staffs. Once in employment, the demobilized soldier was not lost sight of. The department kept in touch with him, in order to be assured that every man had been satisfactorily reestablished in civil life. The governing element behind these endeavors to restore every ex-soldier to the place where he belonged as a civilian was to make him again a producing power in the national life of the Dominion. Success could not have been achieved without public cooperation.

Another function of the department was the tendering of free medical service. All ex-soldiers who fell ill from any cause, within a year after their discharge from the army, received free treatment. Any recurrence of illness arising from war injuries entitled ex-soldiers to the same aid. Maimed men needed artificial limbs; they got them free. The disabled, returning from the front, required further treatment; the Government hospitals gave it. There were tubercular and insane patients; many medical and surgical cases of other categories; while other patient were treated in clinics. Patients under treatment in hospitals for disabilities due to war service always received adequate pay and allowances for their dependents.

The postwar calls on the medical service of the department were very great. In June, 1918, the number of military patients numbered only 1,200. By September it had reached over 10,000.

As to the provision of artificial limbs, the Government undertook their manufacture, in order to forestall the temptation to profiteer by private firms at the expense of men who had lost limbs in war service. The Government also made orthopedic boots and surgical appliances.

Perhaps the most notable feature of the educational work was the establishment of the Khaki University. This project differed from the vocational training of disabled men for new pursuits. It aimed at reaching all Canadian troops overseas who had interrupted their studies at school or college to join the colors. It gave them an opportunity to employ their spare hours in continuing the course of study for a professional or business career which had been broken by the war. Otherwise the time that would elapse, dependent on the war's duration, before they could resume training for their various callings, would make such a gap in their lives that with the war's close they would be completely severed from their former plans for intellectual careers. They would have to begin all over again.

The foresight of the Canadian Y. M. C. A. brought the Khaki University into being. But it had its real inspiration in the officers and men themselves. The "Y" officers were always receiving requests from them for books and reading material of the kind required by students. There were also many inquiries from the men as to what life they should adopt on their return home. The Canadian Y. M. C. A. thereupon perceived a need. Men who had mapped careers for themselves, especially in the teaching and other cultured professions, not to mention those whose future lay in technical and commercial fields, must be saved for Canada. The men were keenly anxious to resume contact with the problems of civilian life. They had their spare moments, and there was much lost time to be made up. They had lived down the early excitements of army life, and their social and civic instincts dominated them when they were not fighting. So the Canadian "Y" personnel took occasion by the hand, and, with the cooperation of the military authorities, brought the Khaki University of Canada into being. It obtained official recognition by becoming a branch of the General Staff, and started out on its novel educational scheme under the guidance of President H. H. Torry, head of the University of Alberta, who acted as Director of Educational Services of the Canadian oversea forces.

It was a simple scheme, though its operation called for much preparation, especially in securing the assistance of Canadian and English universities. In brief, it continued a soldier's schooling, where he had left off, by class work and lectures. Apart from its service in providing practical education to enable him to resume his life's work, it greatly contributed as a sustaining factor to military efficiency and the general morale. In many cases the Khaki University determined the future plans of men who had no fixed and satisfactory occupation, for by offering tuition it enabled them to choose and secure a definite calling in life. It so worked out that the educational work conducted in war time—there was a Khaki college on the fighting front and local classes known by the same name in England—created an interest which during the demobilization period that duly came intensified and enabled the men's readjustment to civil life in Canada an easier matter to control.

The Canadian universities formed an advisory board which supervised the entire work, besides providing teaching facilities and personnel, while the Canadian Y. M. C. A., having started the Khaki University movement on its way, undertook to finance it to the utmost after transferring its control to the Universities. The scheme came before the Canadian Government in October, 1917, and at once received the hearty support of the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet. It obtained a support as valuable from the Canadian people, who, when asked by the Y. M. C. A. to subscribe a million dollars to finance the work, promptly responded by giving a great deal more.

In France what became known as the Khaki University of Vimy Ridge was established, but at the beginning of 1918 the spring offensive stopped further progress in the fighting areas until after the Armistice was signed. The main educational work was conducted in England, where campaign exigencies did not interfere with the movement. In fact, the demand for instruction was so great among the Canadian troops there that the work could not be discontinued. In 1918 fourteen Khaki colleges came into existence, established at various points, with a central college at Ripon for advanced instruction, while battalion schools taught educational rudiments, including elementary agriculture and commercial subjects. The college courses covered the higher branches of agriculture, applied science, commerce, art, and theology. Students of advanced grade also had the advantage of completing their courses after demobilization at the chief British universities.

The work in France was successfully continued during demobilization, though with difficulty. The number of students who registered during December, 1918, will serve as a criterion of its popularity, the four Canadian divisions mustering 8,352 registrants. For the benefit of men who could not attend class courses, a correspondence department was organized which reached Canadians in hospitals, forestry and railroad camps, and other places where local organizations were not practicable.

As to general results, the grand total of registration for the final six months of 1918, during which the Khaki colleges got into their working stride, was 34,768, while over 100,000 books and 750,000 educational brochures and pamphlets were circulated among Canadian oversea forces. The teaching was almost entirely performed by voluntary instructors, chaplains, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, and by army officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates, who had previously belonged to the teaching profession.