1915-02-08

Mr. SPEAKER:: I have the honour to inform the House that the House having attended His Royal Highness in the Senate Chamber, His Royal Highness was pleased to deliver a Speech to both Houses of Parliament. To prevent mistakes I have obtained a copy, which is as follows:
Honourable Gentlemen of the Senate:
Gentlemen of the House of Commons:
During the months which have elapsed since the outbreak of war, the people of Canada have 1
given most abundant and convincing evidence of their firm loyalty to our Sovereign and of their profound devotion to the institutions ol the British Empire.
Since I last addressed you, a Canadian Expeditionary Force of more than thirty thousand men has been safely despatched across the Atlantic, and after arriving in the British Islands has been engaged in completing the necessary training before proceeding to the front. Notwithstanding the unusually severe weather conditions which have prevailed in the British Islands, the training has proceeded satisfactorily and it is anticipated that the force will very shortly take its place in the field of action.
The earnest and resolute spirit of patriotism which animates the whole Dominion has evoked a magnificent response to the call for service beyond the seas. Large additional forces have been organized from which further contingents are ready to be despatched as soon as the necessary arrangements for receiving them and completing their training can be consummated.
Notwithstanding the inevitable disturbance of trade which was created by the outbreak of war on so vast a scale, the financial and business conditions of the Dominion have shown great stability, and on the whole the country has adapted itself to the new conditions in a very effective way.
My advisers will submit for your consideration measures rendered necessary by the participation of this Dominion in the great task which our empire has undertaken in this war.
Gentlemen of the House of Commons:
The accounts for the last fiscal year will be laid before you immediately and the estimates for the next fiscal year will be submitted without delay. You will be asked to make the necessary financial provision for effective aid in the conduct of the war.
Honourable Gentlemen of the Senate: Gentlemen of the House of Commons:
The strong unity of purpose which inspires His Majesty's Dominions gives us the firm assurance that the cause for which this war has been undertaken will be maintained to an honourable and successful issue. I commend to your favourable consideration the measures which will be submitted to you for aiding that great purpose, and I pray that the Divine blessing may be vouchsafed to your deliberations.
On motion of Sir George Foster it was ordered that the Speech of His Royal Highness the Governor General to both Houses



of Parliament be taken into consideration on Monday next, and that this order have precedence over all otner business except introduction of Bills until disposed of.



SELECT STANDING COMMITTEES.

Sir GEORGE FOSTER:: In the absence of the First Minister, I beg to move:
That a special committee be appointed to prepare and report with all convenient speed lists of members to compose the Select Standing Committees of this House under Rule 10 ; said committee to be composed of Sir Robert Borden, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Messrs. Reid (Grenville), Casgrain, Pugsley, Stanfield and Pardee.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.

[Stage Direction]
Bill No. 1, respecting the Administration of Oaths of Office.-Sir George Foster.

Thomas Simpson Sproule: I have the honour to inform the House that during the recess I received communications from several members notifying me that the following vacancies had occurred in the representation, viz.:
Of Hon. Louis Philippe Pelletier, member for the Electoral District of Quebec County, by resignation.
Of Pierre Edouard Blondin, Esq., member for the Electoral District of Champlain, consequent upon his acceptance of an office of emolument, to wit: Minister of Inland Revenue.
Of Hon. Wilfrid Bruno Nantel, member for the Electoral District of Terrebonne, consequent upon his appointment as a member and deputy chief commissioner of the Board of Railway Commissioners.
Of James McKay, Esq., member for the Electoral District of Prince Albert, consequent upon his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court of Saskatchewan.
Of Thomas Beattie, Esq., Member for the Electoral District of London, by decease.
Of George A. Clare, member for the Electoral District of South Waterloo, by decease.
I accordingly issued my several warrants to the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery to make out new writs of election for the said electoral districts respectively.



NEW MEMBERS.

Thomas Simpson Sproule: I have the honour to inform the House that during the recess the Clerk of the House received from the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery certificates of the election and return of the following members:
Of Hon. Pierre Edouard Blondin, member for the Electoral District of Champlain.
Of Hon. Thomas Chase Casgrain, for the Electoral District of Quebec county.
Of William Gray, Esq., for the Electoral District of London.
Of Frank Stewart Scott, Esq., for the Electoral District of South Waterloo.
Of Joseph A. Descaries, Esq., for the Electoral District of Jacques Cartier.
Of Arthur Bliss Copp, Esq., for the Electoral District of Westmorland.



MEMBERS INTRODUCED.

[Stage Direction]
Hon. Pierre Edouard Blondin, for the Electoral District of Champlain, introduced by Sir George Foster and Hon. C. J. Doherty.
Hon. Thomas Chase Casgrain, for the Electoral District of Quebec county, introduced by Sir George Foster and Hon. C. J. Doherty.
Frank Stewart Scott, Esq., for the Electoral District of South Waterloo, introduced by Sir George Foster and Mr. W. G. Weichel.
On motion of Sir George Foster, the House adjourned at 3.35 p.m. until Monday next.
Monday, February 8, 1915.
The House _ met at Three o'clock, the Speaker in the Chair.

Thomas Simpson Sproule: I have the honour to
inform the House that the Clerk of the House has received from the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery certificates of the election and return of Samuel James Donaldson, Esq., member for the Electoral Dis-, triet of Prince Albert.



INTRODUCTION OF MEMBERS.

[Stage Direction]
William Gray, Esq., for the Electoral District of London, introduced by Hon. T. W. Crothers and Mr. J. E. Armstrong.

Arthur Bliss Copp, Esq., for the Electoral District of Westmorland, introduced by the Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mr. F. B. Carvell.
Samuel James Donaldson, Esq., for the Electoral District of Prince Albert, introduced by Hon. Robert Rogers and Hon. W. J. Roche.

[Stage Direction]
Report of R. A. Pringle, K.C., Commissioner appointed to investigate into the payment of subsidies to the Southampton Railway Company, together with the evidence, etc., taken before the Commissioner. -Hon. Frank Cochrane.
Report of the Commissioners of the Transcontinental Railway, for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. Frank Cochrane.
Report of the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada, for the year ending March 31, 1914.-Hon. Frank Cochrane.
Report of the Postmaster General for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. T. Chase Casgrain.
Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. Martin Burrell.
Report of the Department of the Naval Service for the year ended March 31, 1914. -Hon. J. D. Hazen.
Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheiies, for the year 1913-1914.-Hon. J. D. Hazen.
Fifth Census of Canada, 1911-Agriculture, vol. IV.-Sir George Foster.
Report of the Department of Trade and Commerce for the year ended March 31, 1914-Parts I, II, III.-Sir George Foster.
Report of the Department of Labour for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. T. W. Crothers.
Report of the Registrar of Boards of Conciliation and Investigation for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. T. W. Crothers.
Report of the Department of Public Works, Vol. I, for the year ended March 31, 1914.-Hon. Robert Rogers.
Copies of Orders in Council as follows:
P. C.. No. 2175, dated August 21, 1914, re extra rates of pay for service in submarine vessels.
P. C. No. 2251, re rates of pay and allowances for petty officers and men volunteering for war service.
H
P. C. No. 2960, re scheme of separation allowance for the dependents of those serving in H.M.C. ships.
Radiotelegraph regulation 106 concerning the wave length for use by Canadian licensed sbip stations during the period of hostilities.
Amendments to the radiotelegraph regulations, Nos. 103 and 104.
P. C. No. 260, re establishment of rank of mate in the Royal Canadian Navy.-Hon. J. D. Hazen.

[Stage Direction]
Sir ROBERT BORDEN presented an approved Minute of Council appointing Hon. W. J. Roche, Hon. J. D. Reid, Hon. A. E. Kemp, and Hon. T. C. Casgrain a committee to act with the Speaker of the House as a commission under the provisions of the llt-h chapter of the Revised Statutes of Canada, an Act respecting the House of Commons.

[Stage Direction]
Mr. GEORGE BRADBURY (Selkirk) moved for leave to introduce Bill No. 5, respecting the Pollution of Navigable Waters. He said: The Bill is similar to the one I have had before the House during the last two sessions, excepting- that I have made a small amendment with a view to meeting some of the objections that were raised by hon. gentlemen from different parts of Canada. By the Bill as now presented the Government will have power to take any water- river, stream or lake-out of the operation of the Bill when they see fit to do so. Otherwise the Bill is the same as the one I introduced last year.
Motion agreed to, and Bill read the first time.

[Stage Direction]
Mr. W. F. MACLEAN (South York) moved for leave to introduce a Bill to regulate the exportation of nickel, etc. He said:	The
object of the Bill is to regulate the export of nickel and so to control the supply as to prevent the enemy from getting any of it in a time of war like this. It is drafted very much on the same lines as the Bill introduced some years ago to control the export of natural gas and electrical power.
Right Hon.   S@: I am not sure that a Bill of this char-

acter would not require a previous resolution, but that would be a matter for the consideration of Your Honour. But, so far as the general subject of the Bill is concerned, it has received the very careful and prolonged consideration of the Government. The arrangements which have been made with regard to the exportation of nickel have received the unqualified and absolute approval of the British authorities, and especially of the committee which has been formed in Great Britain for the purpose of dealing with the exportation of any materials or supplies which might be of use to the enemy.


Thomas Simpson Sproule: I judge that this Bill would so affect trade as to come under rule 50, which provides:
No Bill relating to trade, or the alteration of the laws concerning trade, is to he brought into this House until the proposition shall have been first considered in a Committee of the Whole House, and agreed unto by the House.


Mr. W. F. MACLEAN:: The Bill to regulate the export of natural gas and electrical power was introduced without any previous resolution by Sir Charles Fitzpatrick in 1906. It did not get through, and was reintroduced by Sir Allen Aylesworth at the next session. In both cases the Bill was given its first reading without any preceding resolution, so that the procedure of the House bears me out absolutely. As this Bill is exactly on the same lines as the Bills introduced by the two former Ministers of Justice, I think I am quite within my rights in moving the first reading; but if Your Honour decides that I must proceed by way of resolution, I shall certainly bow to your decision, but in that case we shall be changing the procedure' of the House.


Sir ROBERT BORDEN:: The matter might stand, so that Mr. Speaker may look into it.
Motion stands.



THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S SPEECH.


[Stage Direction]
The House proceeded to the consideration of the Speech of His Royal Highness the Governor General at the opening of the session.
Mr. W. G. WEIOHEL (North Waterloo) rose to move that an Address be presented to His Royal Highness the Governor General offering the humble thanks of this House to His Royal Highness for the gracious speech which he has been pleased

to make to both Houses of Parliament. He said:
Mr. Speaker, it would be folly on my part not to admit that I am to a certain extent embarrassed to-day in trying to perform the task that has been assigned to me. I fully appreciate the courtesy, the broad-minded spirit of British fair play, which accompanies this honour, yet I realize that the same is not to myself, but to the constituency I have the honour to represent in this House, to the worthy, frugal, energetic and industrious citizens of North Waterloo. On behalf of my constituents, 1 desire to express to the [DOT] right hon. the Prime Minister my deep appreciation of the generous impulse which prompted him at this momentous period of our country's history to confer on my humble self this great honour, an honour I can assure you that is highly prized and doubly appreciated.
Before proceeding with my remarks allow me to convey to His Royal Highness the Governor General and his estimable consort our deepest feelings of respect and gratitude for the kindly courtesy and good will they have on each and every occasion exhibited towards the Canadian people. The untiring zeal and activity displayed by His Royal Highness in connection with the mobilization and departure of the first expeditionary force, and the kindly interest he has displayed in the welfare of the militia generally, as evidenced by the sacrifices he has made to travel long distances to inspect and encourage them, have been highly appreciated 'by a grateful nation. His presence in Canada during this critical period is highly desirable, and his advice to the Canadian Government has been of inestimable value.
The thanks of the Canadian people are due to Her Royal Highness for the keen interest she has shown in Red Cross work for the Canadian forces, and for her generous assistance towards the Belgian relief funds. Her kindly Christmas gift to each officer and man of the expeditionary force consisting of a card of greetings and a block of maple sugar, was highly appreciated. Apart altogether from the pleasure afforded to the Canadian troops, and the realization that this gift meant that the highest lady in the land had not forgotten them in their uncomfortable surroundings at Salisbury, this presentation of one of the native products of the Dominion has had a very great effect, in that it has called
Ti'FRRTTA'RV S 1915
the attention of the British people to one of the most delicious of our native products and will serve to encourage an industry heretofore too much neglected.
Buthlessly awakened from our long slumber of false security, we are called upon to-day to desert for a time at least the doctrine of peace that has taken firm root amongst all peace-loving people throughout the world, and to devote our energies towards the adoption of measures to tide us over the present existing crisis-one that not only affects our own Dominion of Canada, but will have a tendency to cement the bonds of imperial unity throughout the whole Empire. Certain measures to meet the existing situation will be introduced in this House 'by the Government this session. We are confronted with a situation that demands the co-operation of every member occupying a seat in this chamber, that demands courage of a high order, a eourage born of conviction that we are in the right, and that to falter and hesitate would be fatal to the country's and the Empire's best interests. All eyes to-day are focused on Europe. As the awful drama of war unfolds itself from day to day, bringing us tidings of the terrible conflict that is being waged by the contending forces in the field, of the destruction, the havoc, and the suffering that are caused by this Armageddon of the nations, we can scarcely believe it possible that we are living in the twentieth century, a century that was ushered in under the most auspicious circumstances, and that gave promise of being an era of peace on earth, and good will towards men.
It is a stupendous struggle, a struggle that will undoubtedly change the map of Europe, that has cast its blight and shadow on millions of happy homes, that is causing untold misery and suffering to those who are least able to bear it, that has practically ruined one country, exposing its citizens to untold privations and miseries, and may be the cause of ruination and disaster to others before the war is over. Never has the world witnessed such a catastrophe, such awful carnage, such ruthless disregard of the rights of others.
The anxiety felt by the Canadian people is intense, as our very existence is at stake. Newspapers are eagerly sought after, bulletin boards are surrounded day and night by innumerable numbers eagerly reading the news from the front announcing in short, concise sentences the daily
progress of the tremendous struggle that is going on in far-off Europe.
For years we trusted in arbitration; peace societies throughout the world worked harmoniously one with the other, and men who did not know the situation as it really existed claimed that there was no cause for alarm; the warnings of those who knew were held up to ridicule, and the possibilities of such a stupendous struggle were absolutely discounted. When the blow fell on that memorable day last August, people respected as they never respected before the late Lord Roberts prophetic words prior to the war, when in ringing tones that could be heard from one end of England to the other, he warned the nation of the impending struggle, and they now realize that he was right and that they have lost in him through death one of the great and illustrious men of the British Empire.
They were pleased beyond conception, however, that Lord Kitchener was given absolute command of the Empire's forces -his very presence at the helm inspires confidence-that General French took command in the field-and he has since demonstrated to a thankful people that the trust confided in him was not misplaced-and a sigh of relief went up from the whole nation when at the outbreak of hostilities the First Lord of the Admiralty with confidence stated that the bulwark of the nation-the British Navy-was ready. And was it a vain boast? The silent victory on the seas is the answer-commerce uninterrupted-business as usual-with the enemy's navy bottled up, and her commerce practically at a standstill.
Never before in the Empire's history has the truth that " the strength of the nation lies in its sea power " been better exemplified than during the last five months; and British subjects throughout the world have every reason to be thankful to those men who had the courage of their convictions, who saw that trouble was bound to come, and who were ready and prepared for it when it did come.
This is a war that was not desired by Great Britain. The causes that brought it about are familiar to all of you and need not be discussed to-day. But from the evidence produced we are assured that the statesmen of England tried by every means in their power to avoid an armed conflict. Every art known to diplomacy, to bring about a better understanding, and to preserve the peace, was exercised, but to no avail. And now that the die is cast,
[Stage Direction]
feeling and knowing that we have a just cause, there will be no hesitation on the part of the people living within the Empire, who are determined to at once and forever take issue with those who proclaim the doctrine that might is right, and who favour military autocracy, as against the doctrine of true democracy.
As we value our self-respect let us face the responsibility with proper seriousness, courage and high resolve, and at the same time let us not be deceived regarding the importance of the task we have undertaken, nor be misled by vain glory into underestimating the strain it will be on our powers.
. The war has to a certain extent created a situation throughout the whole world which is not very desirable. Pessimists to-day are having their innings and are talking about business depression and hard times. True, there is a tightness in the money market,and it would be folly for me to say that Canada along with all other countries of the world is not feeling the pinch as well. A great deal of blame for the present conditions has been credited to the war. War or no war, a readjustment and a necessary one, was bound to come; in fact, it was already under way before there were real signs of the impending catastrophe. Prosperity reigned supreme for many years, and men believed that depression and hard times were permanently done away with, men lost their heads and recklessness in business matters took the place of good, sound common sense.
Then some men wise in their generation, who can see ahead of the times, realize that the pace is too fast, and that prosperity has made the nation extravagant, and they begin to doubt. Discounts are refused, and men start to hoard money and speculation receives a check; panic follows; and in trying to extricate themselves during this transition period the people learn by hard experience that the situation created is an awkward one.
The war simply hastened readjustment; but it did something else besides. For a while it shut up the world's stock exchanges, which, to a certain extent, saved the situation, it made big national banks stagger, made business and commerce nearly stand still, shipping was demoralized and insurance took a place as a high priced luxury. The so-called credit machine of the world was broken, and men realized as they never did before how much after all the different nations depend on one another. Depending largely on British capital this upheaval in

the world's money markets naturally had its effect on Canada.
Thanks to the energy and wisdom exercised by our Finance Minister and the Government, however, working in co-operation with the Canadian banking system, and keeping in close communication with the British authorities, panic and disaster were averted in this country. Eight important measures were put into force which no doubt you are familiar with, and which had a marked effect in steadying the position in the Dominion.
One of the most gratifying features in Canada to-day is the agricultural position. Although the western harvest was not so large as in the previous year, the increased price obtained will more than offset the difference in the yield. Crops and other farm products were excellent, and prices very satisfactory. Considering the war it is reasonable to expect a heavy demand for grains and foodstuffs in 1915-
Europe is not in a position to produce her regular crop during the coming year, owing to much of the land formerly used for productive purposes being now used as battlefields, and naturally extraordinary demands will be made on Canada. The wise farmer is he who has increased his acreage, as prices will probably remain high for another crop year.
We must recognize that some of the main business interests of the country are vitally affected by present conditions. We have built railroads and developed the country, knowing for a certainty that the soil would have to produce what was necessary to pay interest and principal on these vast loans. The age of construction of large works of importance in Canada helped to create the prosperous times of the past few years, but the production from the soil and natural resources, which after all is where all wealth is drawn from, was not sufficient, and did not keep pace with the other. Production is what we need from our natural resources, and let us hope that the farmer will take full advantage of the situation created; and the stimulation of agricultural production should help materially to solve the problem of the high cost of living, the overcrowding of cities, and consequent unemployment.
Considering the enormous expenditures involved in this country, and the difficulties we have had to cope with owing to the war, it is surprising that Canada has stood the strain so well. In fact, I believe I am not overestimating when I state that we have

weathered the storm almost better than any other country in the world.
A great deal has been said recently regarding the wholesome general tone of Canadian affairs, based not so much on what we might call tangible facts as on the prevailing public confidence throughout our Dominion in the natural resources regarding the production of the soil, mines, forests and waters, and in the ability of our citizens to deal intelligently and successfully with the immediate or any other emergency.
Considering the great strain to which the financial fabric .was subjected, our monetary institutions, banks and trust companies are stronger to-day than before the war broke out, and have come through the strenuous situation practically unscathed. The balance of trade which formerly was against the Dominion, and heavily so, is now being steadily reversed. The ablest business authorities in Canada are now advocating production, and more production, as the surest and speediest means of assurance of industrial independence. We have here at home all the resources essential to our welfare, and our first economic duty is to develop our own opportunities.
We are anxious for the war to cease-
,anxious that peace may be restored, and many are the opinions and theories that have been advanced regarding it. But, Sir, theories and opinions, as a writer recently stated, will not end the war; it will be determined by the strength of British arms, funds and confidence. Once rid of the craze for armaments and relieved of this curse that has held Europe in thraldom for years, 'business will naturally receive a new impetus by directing money formerly used for armament purposes into regular business channels.
What we need now in Canada is mutual confidence. We are to-day richer in all those things that satisfy human wants than ever before in our history. Confidence must be restored, extravagance must be lessened, the 'pace we have been going must be curbed, and the lessons learned by hard experience will no doubt be of mutual benefit to us all.
The one great remedy for present conditions is: buy goods made in Canada. If you cannot buy what you want here, then buy Empire-made goods. Loyalty and patriotism as applied to goods made in Canada and the production of our Canadian resources are the two things needful for the country at the present time. Why should
we buy goods of American am! European manufacture when Canadian workmen to-day are producing goods that are a credit to the Canadian people? What an opportunity for the Canadian shoppers to show their loyalty to their own country in times like these. Proud should we be of the excellent quality of our farm products, of the splendid workmanship of goods of Canadian manufacture; and every citizen who has the best interests of the country at heart should make new resolutions from this day forth- should instil into the minds of the men, women and children, that patriotism and loyalty are as much needed to-day in these things as they are in the graver issues which are being decided by force of arms. I have listened on several occasions to the Minister of Trade and Commerce delivering addresses along this line. He is enthused with the idea of " made in Canada " and " buy in Canada," and his advice on one occasion that labour and capital, the maker and the consumer, should co-operate, is one that will appeal to all men of good judgment.
So let us not forget in the future when we go shopping to insist upon it that we receive goods of home manufacture, that we buy Canadian clothes, made by Canadian workmen, that we insist on Canadian-made shoes, that we do not wear anything but Canadian underwear, that we buy shirts and collars made in a Canadian factory, that we furnish our homes with furniture made in Canada, that we use Canadian machinery; in short, that we be patriotic and loyal by buying Canadian-made goods, and that now and at all times in the future we shall uphold the industries of Canada, so as to give our workmen employment. The results of this policy will after a few months be apparent to all. The Minister of Trade and Commerce aptly described the position of Canadian industries some time ago, when delivering an address to the Toronto Board of Trade, when he stated that our ports and our transport systems and our factories were well equipped, wisely built, and efficient, and that all we have to do now is to keep them going. Orders for army equipment from the Canadian, English, French and Russian Governments have immensely supported the industrial position in this country, and have proven to be a great stimulus to lagging trade.
I am sure that the business men of Canada appreciate the ardour of the Government in securing for Canadian industries the large orders which have been placed indiscriminately throughout Canada, and in

[Stage Direction]
such a way that all classes of people have been highly benefited, and the business situation throughout the country greatly improved.
With the seas cleared of the enemy and commerce again reinstated; with the sign hanging out, "Business as usual"; with the markets of England, France and other nations offering avenues for unprecedented business owing to the war, the Canadian manufacturer and the Canadian farmer should be in a position to increase their export trade, as the opportunities for such to-day are in my estimation better and greater than ever before in our history. I am a firm believer in getting after export business, but I am a stronger believer than ever in getting after the home market in our midst. Nothing can be gained by our standing idle and being pessimists. Let us do our best to mdet the unique situation of the present, and there will be good reason for congratulation in after years. As a writer recently stated, " such action means the maintenance of the national workshop, national credit, and national satisfaction." Let us be optimistic, even more so now than ever before in our lives.
Think of poor, unhappy, heroic little Belgium; a few months ago a prosperous, thriving community, secure in the belief that her neutrality would not be violated; to-day her homes destroyed, her priceless works of art ruined, her historic buildings demolished beyond repair, and her people stretching forth their hands in mute appeal to us for help. Think of the unhappy homes in England, France, Russia and Germany; think of the wives and mothers who weep because the husband and son will never return; think of the little children made orphans by the cruel hand of war; and then let us thank God that we live in Canada, and that peace virtually exists on our shores, even though the Empire is at war.
I, for my part, Sir, feel that I am fortunate to live under the protection of the Union Jack. Its silken folds remind me of the freedom that I am enjoying in this country under British institutions-and I know what it means to be a British subject.
I am proud of the fact that I was born in Canada, and that I have the same opportunities as all others to make the best of my citizenship in this country of unrivalled resources. To be a British subject is in my estimation a great asset, and I consider it a tMr. Weichel.]
great privilege to be a conscious fibre of that compacted force.
Although born in Canada, I am of German origin; and, needless to say, along with many hundred thousand other people living here at the present time, I feel keenly the situation that developed five months or so ago in Europe. For a few minutes, Mr. Speaker, I wish to speak to the members of this House about our Germ an-Canadian fellow-citizens

knowing as I do that I am going to touch on a delicate subject, but also aware of the fact that I am speaking to broad-minded men who desire above everything else the unification of all races throughout Canada to-day into one harmonious whole. For many years you have had in your midst a great many people of ^-German origin, thirfty and frugal in their habits, possessed of energies and business abilities that have aroused the admiration of all classes 'in Canada. They have always been looked upon as desirable citizens, thousands of them have settled in this fair country along with immigrants from every other part of the globe, and very few of them would leave Canada to-day for any other country of the world should opportunity offer. Since the outbreak of hostilities a few-a very few-newspapers in Canada have been trying to discredit and cast suspicion on the German-Canadians of this country, but, be it said to the credit of the great majority of the Canadian people and of the press of Canada, these insinuations have not carried any weight, and the spirit of British fair play and justice is just as much alive to-day in the hearts of the English, the Scotch, and the Irish, as it was during the days of peace.
Mt. Speaker, I am not here to-day to make any apology for the German-Canadians in Canada; but this I do say, and .am pleased to say it with all the energy that I can command at the present moment, that the people of German origin in this country are loyal to their King and loyal to the Empire, and that they have since the outbreak of hostilities given ample evidence to this effect, and evidence of such a nature as cannot be denied. True it is that in certain isolated cases some have been indiscreet, and naturally have had to suffer for their indiscretion; but the rank and file of the German-Canadians in Canada to-day are as true as steel, and, as I stated, are daily giving evidences of their loyalty to the flag and to the Crown. The liberties possessed by

those of English, Irish, Scotch, and French descent are theirs as well, and they appreciate to the fullest extent British laws and institutions which guarantee to them freedom of speech and liberty of conscience. Should the German-Ganadian, in Canada, be asked to forget the land of his forefathers, its traditions and past history ? Let me ask him of Scotch descent, will he ever forget the land of the heather and the rugged scenery of the highlands immortalized in song and poetry by the beloved Scotch poet Burns ? Does not the heart of him who boasts of Irish blood beat faster when he thinks of the land of the Shamrock, the " Emerald Isle," with its hallowed associations and pleasant memories ? Would it not he too much to -ask the French-Canadian to forget the history and glorious traditions of old France ? Would an Englishman ever think for one moment of renouncing the land of Shakespeare, Milton and Bacon ?
Sir, I would not give a snap of the fingers for the man who denies his ancestry and who is ashamed of the name his father and mother gave to him.
German-Canadians are proud of the race from which they spring; proud of the progress that country has made in science, in art, in music, in literature, in philosophy, in chemistry; gratefully remembering the splendid literary works of Schiller and Goethe; proud of the wonderful compositions of Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Liszt and Wagner. But, Sir, they are not proud of the violation of the neutrality of Belgium, of the burning of Louvain, nor of the destruction of the Rheims cathedral. German art, German music, German science, is one thing; but Prussian militarism is another; and the . reason why so many people of German origin have left their old fatherland was to escape military domination; and to-day they are just as eager and anxious as you are for the obliteration of this curse which has been weighing so heavily on Europe for so many years.
Sir, it is easy to understand why Canadians of British breed answer the call. The French-Canadian to-day is a natural participant in the present conflict, and besides is grateful for liberty of religion and customs under British rule. But, Sir, is there not a fuller meaning in this spectacle of men going from the German communities of Waterloo, Huron, Bruce and Perth? For them the call is not of the blood; it is duty that calls, and gratitude to the
mother country for the many blessings they have enjoyed for so many years in this the land of their adoption. Shoulder to shoulder with all other Canadians, no matter of what nationality they may be, they will do their duty, realizing to the fullest extent that this is a fight for liberty and for future existence-and, let us hope, for the eradication of militarism from the world.
A few weeks ago, Sir, when the twin cities of Berlin and Waterloo responded so nobly to the Canadian patriotic fund, they esteemed it a high privilege to engage in a cause so just and praiseworthy. With them patriotism meant duty in the *highest, sense. At the same time, they felt keenly the privilege to do that duty, and by the inspiration of it they stand stronger to-day than ever before for the country's unity.
Imperial sentiment has been diffused amongst the people of the mother country during the past quarter of a century to a remarkable degree. Wherever the Union Jack floats security and justice prevail. Peace, order, security and liberty are safe as long as love of country burns in the hearts of the people. A great statesman once said that liberty is responsibility, and responsibility is duty, and that duty is to preserve the exceptional liberty we enjoy with the law, for the law, and by the law. India has made wonderful progress under British rule, and order, peace, and progress have been firmly established in that country. There is, thank God, no servitude under the Flag, and the native of Africa is guaranteed justice and security for his own person and for everything that he may have in his possession. Pillars of strength are Canada, Australia; New Zealand and South Africa, and in this crisis during the past five months, our far-flung Empire has been welded together with bands of steels as never before. '
When the" call came the nation rose as one man. What mattered it whether differences of opinion about other issues existed? They realized that this was a battle of right against might, and all other questions of minor importance were laid aside, and perfect unity and harmony prevailed from one end of the Empire to the other.
Can the unity of the British Empire be better described than by the spectacle that is presented to us in South Africa to-day; only a few years ago our bitterest enemies, to-day joining hands with all the other parts of the Empire in maintaining that freedom under British institutions which
[Stage Direction]
they have been privileged to enjoy, and which has not been found wanting? General Botha is honoured to-day by all men who love to pay tribute to greatness, and his name will be recorded in history along with the many other illustrious names that have added to the Empire's prestige.
Sir, what would be our fate should France be beaten, Belgium put out of existence, and perhaps Holland and Denmark erased from the map? What stirred England to action? It was the moral issue that appealed to the British people, and they would not go back on their word to defend the neutrality of Belgium. As Prime Minister Asquith stated, " It was only when we were confronted with the choice between keeping and breaking solemn obligations-the discharging of a binding trust-that we threw away the scabbard; bound were we by obligations that we could not decline." The preservation of Belgium's national life was the object for which we strove; and how nobly the little kingdom acquitted herself will never be forgotten by the Allies who owe a great debt of gratitude to the heroic nation which can never be paid in its entirety.
Liberties that we have prized and that have been handed down from generation to generation will have to give way to a new doctrine that might is right should' the teachings of Nietsche, Treitschke and Bernhardi prevail; the very existence of the democratic institutions which ire have learned to revere and love would be threatened. Mr. Bonar Law, the Opposition leader in the British House of Commons, spoke true words when he said: " We are fighting for our nation's existence-for everything which nations have always held dear. But we are fighting for something more: we are fighting for the moral forces of humanity; we are fighting for the respect of public law and for the right of public justice, which are the foundations of civilization; we are fighting for right against might." Frenzied armamentism and militarism cannot and should not not have a place in the civilized world to-day. The tension in a country like Europe must be terrible, and the financial burden almost overpowering.
All right-thinking people regret that we are placed in this position to-day, and we shudder at the consequences entailed. The task, however, which we are called upon to perform is great and noble, and is intimately connected with the progress, prosperity and morality of mankind. One thing we are certain of: that the guilt for this war 
does not lie at England's door. She stands to-day for freedom, for the rights of small states and for the sanctity of treaties. Yet I realize that in the distant future a great change will come over the nations of the world when the great principles for which we are fighting, liberty and true democracy, emerge victorious. Germany and all other countries in Europe, loosed from the galling yoke of militarism, will then be free to turn their thoughts to higher things than armaments and the principle that might is right. The whole world will long for peace, and woe to the man or nation that harbours thoughts of conquest. Sick and tired will the world be of the whole wretched business-* of the slaughter of the bravest and best of its young men, and of the demolition and destruction of beautiful buildings and works of art that have been prized for centuries. The twentieth century should be devoted to the higher things of life. The whole world should be brought to the conception that war is an unnecessary evil, that it blights and destroys nations instead of building them up, and that we. should foster the ideals of liberty and justice in the highest sense, that we should work and struggle for the elevation of the human race, and fi r the betterment of conditions of the masses of the people, this fulfilling the Master's message of peace on earth, good will towards men.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my sorrow-and I am sure all the members of this Parliament will join me- in the loss we have sustained through the death of several of our esteemed members.
Yonder is a seat which for years was occupied by one of Canada's prominent business men. He was, like myself, of German descent, but a Canadian among Canadians, proud of his ancestry and prouder still of his own country. Optimistic regarding Canada's future, and a great admirer of British institutions, George A. Clare will be missed in this chamber- missed by his colleagues and friends, irrespective of party. Of him it may be truly said, in the words of Lessing: "The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretentions to an oppressive greatness; one who loves life and understands the use of it, obliging alike at -all times; above all of a golden temper and steadfast as an anchor. For such a one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most brilliant wit, the profoundest thinkeT."

We mourn the loss of London's former representative, the kindly-disposed, genial and whole-souled Major Thomas Beattie. To know him was a pleasure, and his memory will always remain green in the hearts of his friends who knew him best.
Our friends of the Opposition, in the death of the late member for Westmorland, the Hon. Mr. Emmerson, have lost a valuable and honoured associate and the House one of its most faithful members. To them our sympathies are extended.
Canada is grateful to her soldiers who are to-day so valiantly upholding the honour of our country in far-off Europe, and also to those who are preparing to go in the near future. What an object lesson it is to those who predicted the disintegration of the Empire. The thanks of the Canadian people are due the men who gave their time in training and equipping over thirty thousand troops and despatching them to Salisbury Plain in such a short space of time. It was no sinecure, no easy matter, and it reflects great credit on all who with devotion to duty performed their part of the great work. All honour to the members of this House who have enlisted. The hopes and prayers of the Canadian people are with them all in their struggle for right and liberty, and may a kind Providence bring them back again to the land of the Maple Leaf, to their loved ones at home, and to their own firesides, with the knowledge and conviction so beautifully expressed by a Canadian poetess:
We wear no haughty tyrant's chain,
We bend no servile knee.
When to the mistress of the main We pledge our fealty.
She hinds us with the cords of love,
All others we disown;
The rights we owe to God above,
We yield to Him alone.
May He our future course direct By His unerring hand,
Our laws and liberty protect,
And bless our native land.
Mr. H. ACHIM (Labelle) (Translation):: Mr. Speaker, had I been inclined to-day to indulge in lengthy considerations, the very conciseness of the speech from the Throne, the tone of which strikingly recalls that of a military oration, would have reminded me that this is the time for deeds, not for words.
However, it seems difficult to abstain from glancing back somewhat wistfully at the programmes of former sessions of this Parliament replete with measures of a nature to stimulate our economic progress, measures which in several cases have been carried out, while others necessarily must await the coming of better days. Our beloved country which was striding at a young giant's pace along the highway of progress, has been checked, it must be admitted, in its ascending march. But thank God, though at rest it is not dead by any means; for a moment at a standstill, it may be compared to the fighter who, with every muscle strained, takes in the situation and gathers his whole strength to overcome the obstacle. The obstacle which confronts us in the shape of the most unjust of wars, we shall overcome or destroy.
That staunch faith in our future, is inspired in me, Mr. Speaker, by the admirable way in which our people have undergone the strain of those six months of warfare. Of the various countries engaged in this war, is it not our own that has been the less affected from the economic standpoint?
The country districts in my province- and if my information be correct, the fact repeats itself elsewhere-have not given way under the impact, and it is certainly in such places that the motto: " Business as usual " is most thoroughly adhered to. Our country folk bear the brunt of recent developments with a serene face; they are not fearful.of the present and look to the future with that assurance imparted by a conscience of youth and vigour.
"It's an ill wind that blows no good," and the increased demand for cereals and foodstuffs consequent on the war has brought about a rise in prices beneficial to them; while at the same time, by fostering the peaceful arts in the midst of bloody warfare, they are preparing to meet future demands by increased production in 1915.
The mechanic, the city workman, who is not so secure against temporary stringency as is the small farmer or capitalist, naturally were harder hit, but they hail with joy the rise of new industries, the necessary outcome of the new order of things. While factories have closed down, others have been started. The " Made in Canada " campaign, so energetically pushed on by this Government will no doubt cause other industries to spring into existence and instil patriotism into business ventures.
Those orders for supplies which have been directed our way through the skill of our representative in London and his business

agents sent by this Government to the countries adversely affected in their industries, have determined, and will continue to determine an influx of capital beneficial to the workingman.
Am I warranted in hoping that this condition of things in the country districts as well as in the manufacturing centres, will have the effect of rendering bolder Canadian capital, of instilling optimism into the management of our banks, and of getting us out of that period of stagnation which might have been.fatal to us?
Our banks have been spared the risk of being subjected to a run at the opening of the war, through the wise policy adopted by the hon. Minister of Finance dispensing them of the obligation of exchanging their notes for gold; and while congratulating the hon. minister on a measure which assuredly has safeguarded the credit of Canadian institutions, I shall take occasion of it to invite our financial in-stutions to show greater liberality in their dealings with the public.
I happened to pass shortly in front of the monument which the gratitude of a whole people has dedicated to Cartier, and noticing that the pedestal was still without the bust of that great man, and meditating over that fine work interrupted by the war, the thought suggested itself to me that this great work of Confederation which he has *bequeathed to us with the co-operation of his illustrious colleague, Sir John Macdonald, was also when the war broke out on the point of receiving its finishing touch in the full bloom of that national prosperity of which Cartier had laid the foundations as with the hand of a sublime architect.
However, even though the monument be unfinished, it is not broken for all that: the triumphant form of the great man will be seen and honoured on the slopes of Mount Royal; in the same way the work of building up this country is merely interrupted, and nothing will prevent the twentieth century from being the century of Canada.
And now, Sir, however, appropriate it may be to praise the man behind the plough or the man handling the tool, and though it behooves us to glory in those who remain at home and ensure the continuity of our economic life, is there a single hon. gentleman whose first thought is not for those who have left or who are about to leave for this great war; for those who have spilt

or are ready to spill their blood, so as to enable those remaining to carry on their labours safely.
From every quarter our boys have answered the bugler's call; from the shores of the Pacifio to those of the Atlantic, from the valley of the St. Lawrence to that of the Red river, they have taken their place under the folds of the Union Jack. All have answered: Present. With pride we have seen them depart, and presently we shall witness the departure of others. Happy to live under a monarchy which combines a greater measure of liberty than the freest republic, with the stability of monarchial institutions, they have said to themselves that if the Empire is worth while living in, it must perforce be worth while defending.
Accordingly, the appeal to arms could not be left without an answer in the precincts of this House, and the vacant seats which I see near by inspire me with greater pride than grief; for I realize that their occupants of yesterday, exchanging the gown for the sword, have courageously assumed command of their regiments. So that we have nothing to envy to countries older than ours; it is not only in London, in Paris or in Brussels that members of Parliament are willing to affront death on behalf of a great cause. Honour then to the representatives of Simcoe, of York, of Thunder Bay and of Brome. If the warm remembrance of their colleagues can be a solace to them in the performing of their tedious daily tasks, and uphold their courage in action, let me tell them that we are proud of them.
But it is not only around me that war has made vacant seats, and not far from the hon. leader of the Opposition, on the front row, I do not see any longer the' hon. member for Beauce. The declaration of war found him in the enjoyment of perfect bliss, unwilling to depart from that country of Belgium so dear to his heart, and I cannot but admire the ease with which he passed from the realm of romance to that of warfare. Accustomed as he was to be on the firing line of his party, he was incapable of changing, and he remained in the front rank; and I fancy he must he there, with a smiling face and a sharp tongue, wage war in laces as it were. He has received the baptism of fire, possibly that of blood, and I feel proud of it for my province.
Not a single one of these men has thought of arguing over his rights or his duties; not one of them has endeavoured to find out a clause of the constitution behind which he

might find refuge. They all of them have thought with the civilized world that the allies were on the side of right and justice; they applied for powder and ammunition, and I cannot blame the Government for having given them what they pay for so generously with their blood.
Let us pay a tribute, in passing, to that distinguished regiment which is fighting for its lady and its King, the Patricias, whose blood has already reddened the soil of France, and whose war cry "for Canada and the Empire" has already caused the enemy to tremble.
Neither have those remaining here shown indifference. Departing soldiers had left to our charge their beloved ones; it would have been intolerable that the latter should have been made to suffer on account of the patriotism of their natural protectors. Accordingly, contributions were in order, and money poured into the patriotic funds to such an extent that to-day those who have gone to the front need not any longer worry about those intrusted to their care whom they have left at home. In this connection as well, our people have done their duty.
On the other hand, the youthful volunteer has not been forgotten, and on his behalf there ,has been organized associations of women and girls, workshops wherein under the inspiration of patriotism, persons recruited from all classes of society work together in the accomplishment of a common task. The shop girl is there cooperating with the society woman, and while their hands are busily engaged, their lips, I surmise, utter prayers for the success of our arms. May I be allowed to do homage to the graceful fingers handling the needles as well as to the sunburnt hand which holds the rifle: both are inspired with the same patriotism. Free contributions by individuals and by this Government, such is the nature of our interference in the present conflict. Though our little country is not in immediate danger, should we wait until it has been invaded to rise to its defence? Is there any one of us, in this deadly struggle, who has not lived through the hours of the drive on Paris as mournfully as if the German hordes had been overrunning our own soil? Once the enemy is victorious on the continent, and is master of the British Isles, it will be too late to take up arms for the defence of the country.
We realized that Canada could not remain indifferent to the dangers threatening the
Empire, and it may not be out of place to quote here the words uttered by the hon. member for Kingston at the opening of the session of 1912-13 when, referring to the stand taken by the right hon. Prime Minister concerning the relation of the colonies with the mother country, he said: " There is, however, one view which he clearly expressed and it was that if Canada assumed some responsibilities, it would be under the condition of being consulted by the leaders of the nation.'' What form shall that consultation take it is not incumbent on me to say. However, the reiterated statement made by the right hon. Prime Minister, as well as those of a more recent date from the mouth of the hon. Minister of Justice, seemed to justify the belief that it will be a consultation of the representatives of the nation who are responsible to the people. If we are to assume any constitutional obligation involving our participation in the wars of the Empire, the policy advocated by the right hon. the Prime Minister, is the only one in accord with the principle of representation. But should there not be made a distinction between this war and all previous wars in which the Empire was engaged? Current events plainly show that our people know what use they should make of their liberty towards promoting the welfare of the Empire whenever circumstances warrant it. And that war having no parallel in history, cannot, according to my view, constitute a precedent involving a change in our political status, an alteration of the constitution.
I suggested a moment ago that defending the Empire under present conditions was equivalent to defending our own territory. But since every country is made up of its soil and its inhabitants as well, there is another force, invisible that one, and wholly moral, which is necessary to its maintenance, I mean the traditions of the people.
All that we have learned to love, all that we have learned to respect is found within the folds of the Union Jack and the Tricolour. Our tongue, our civilization are threatened simultaneously with those of England and France: we are defending them and a French-Canadian cannot witness without a thrill the alliance of those two nations, to one of which we owe our wholesome political institutions, while from the other we have received those characteristics of the Latin races which we deem second to none.

While France defends her territory, England defends the treaties, and 4 p.m. being unable to continue the part of peace-maker which she had assumed in Europe, she shows that while preferring peace to war, she has not forgotten how to carry on the latter.
And in connection with the part of peacemaker assumed by Great Britain, was it not Mr. Barthou, an eminent French statesman, who, a few years ago, stated that at the time of the Agadir incident, had it not been for the diplomatic intervention of England, France would have been forced into a war with Germany.
This time, having failed in her efiort to avoid such a misfortune, the mother country will not at any rate have it said that force takes precedence of right, and the stand taken by that strong and inviolate nation in extending her hand to the wounded and mutilated Belgium is one of the finest deeds recorded in human history.
May I be allowed, Sir, to halt for one moment before that country and to express to its people and to its King how highly they are esteemed and admired in this country of ours? The impartial historian will state no doubt that it was this nation of 7,000,000 people, by rising in opposition to the German colossus, gave the Allies time to get ready.
It is not my intention to recall here the opening war operations; but the whole world has witnessed that entrancing event: the German army started on its way to Paris, and nothing seemed capable of stopping it; when suddenly a man appears, a knightly King backed up by his whole people, both of whom, the Sovereign and his people, are inspired by the love of country and the sense of honour. At this unexpected juncture: a sovereign who in this twentieth century keeps faith with treaties, Germany hesitates, the Belgians strike out, Germany wavers. In vain, later on, having recovered from their surprise will the Germans dash forward, in vain will they destroy fortresses and burn down unprotected cities, the heroic defensive of the Belgians has brought out to the knowledge of the world the weak points of the German war machine. France and England have mobilized their troops and the triumphal drive of the invader will slow down, and bye and bye be turned into a retreat which closely resembles a riot.
Belgium with its citadels, Belgium with the bravery of its noble children has been

a surprise to the world, possibly it has saved Europe. A large proportion of civilians have taken refuge in London where they have been most cordially received, but, if I am allowed to express a wish, my desire would be that Canada extend a helping hand to those unfortunate people.
All are aware that previous to taking their place in [DOT] the military annals of the world, that small people ranked high in the economic scale. No doubt, and it is my hope as well as theirs, many of them will be desirous of rebuilding their homes and of returning to the spot where their ancestors have tilled for centuries past. Others, I am told, are thinking of settling in Canada. I understand the province of Ontario has started a movement towards promoting their settlement here; Quebec will not lag behind, neither should the Dominion Government leave anything undone to help the provinces in their immigration work.
It so happens that I have in my county a settlement by the name of Namur where-a number of Belgians have been living and prospering for some twenty-five years. The soil of that township is not of the richest to be found in my constituency, but that small community, through the application of scientific methods of culture and good management, has accomplished marvels. The whole northern part of my province and some other provinces, would offer to those immigrants numberless opportunities, and their presence here, their good example, would be a precious boon.
A country where co-operative credit and other associations are flourishing, a country where intensive farming is carried on, Belgium having become an exporter, has scored great successes in the markets of the world, and the cash balance in its favour fills its coffers with gold. Belgium is to-day a money lender which has $100,000,000 in Russia as against $10,000,000 here. Should a few of its people immigrate to this country, would they not draw to the Dominion some of that capital of which we are so much in need?
Our past policy of immigration has not always escaped warranted criticism in the past, and I do not propose deploring very much its forced interruption; but I think sound public opinion in this country would rejoice at seeing a current of Belgian immigration directed towards our borders. By favouring such a move this Government would be doing something helpful to Canada; while at the same time fulfilling its duty towards

those people to whom only peoples of antiquity can furnish a parallel.
While extending a friendly welcome to all those who are disposed to come here, I wish to proclaim to the whole nation that we are just as anxious as they are themselves to see the day when her soil will be rid of the German hordes and when Belgium, bleeding and mutilated, but by no means conquered, shall once more lift her head, made younger by the consciousness of her glorious and immortal deeds.
That expected triumph, the termination of that war which we are longing for, will in a large measure no doubt, be due to our land forces, but even in a greater degree to the allied fleets of France and England. As new developments come to light, it is more and more apparent that the main factor in the final result will be the navy.
As a matter of fact, all strategists, all economists agree that the final result will not depend on particularly striking and brilliant achievements, hut on the power of holding out possessed by the armies in presence, a quality which is inseparable from the possession of large means of revictualling.
Of course, I am not unmindful of the brilliant victories of the British fleet off the coast of South America or in the North sea; but I say that the greatest service our seamen did in that war was in ridding the seas of the German ships which infested them, and in carrying out with lightning rapidity that blockade which, by isolating Germany, has secured for us a new ally, famine, which will decimate the enemy more effectively than the sword or the gun.
That is why I see in the navy a token of victory, and let every British subject cry out with pride and confidence: " Britannia (still) rules the waves."


Right Hon.   S@: Mr. Speaker, in common with every member of this House, I certainly commend very highly the tone of the addresses to which it has been our privilege to listen from the members for Waterloo (Mr. Weichel) and Labelle (Mr. Achim). I concur in every word that has been said in grateful tribute to their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, in the trying times in which we are living. Certainly the conduct of both their Royal Highnesses has been such as to gain our admiration for their devotion to the Empire and to Canada.
I wish to associate myself with the mover of the address (Mr. Weichel) in his touching tribute to our colleagues who have been called away by death, Messrs. Emmerson, Clare and Beattie. They were men whose memories will be green in this House for many years to come.
The hon. member for Labelle supplied what I am sure had been an omission on the part of the hon. member for Waterloo by referring to the absence from this House of the hon. member for Beauce (Mr. Beland). We all regret his absence from this House, but we are sure that he is fulfilling a great duty at the seat of war. Reference was also made to the absence of other members who are to-day at the front, fighting for their country, and whom we hope to see in their seats again at no distant date, with the tokens of victory.
But, Sir, to my mind the one thing remarkable in the debate to-day is that the motion for an Address in reply to a speech from the Throne devoted altogether to the proposition that the war must be continued, should come from one of His Majesty's subjects of German origin. If there be anything significant, anything which justifies the very eloquent periods of my hon. friend from North Waterloo, it is the very fact that he, a British subject of German origin, should speak as he speaks and occupy the place *which he does. There could be no better justification, if justification were needed, of British institutions. In the trying times in which we live the situation of our German fellow'-citizens must certainly be a trying and painful one. "Blood is thicker than water," is an English proverb of universal application, and people of British origin certainly apply it to others as they claim it for themselves. No one in this country would think of claiming from our fellow-subjects of German origin the same measure of sacrifice which we expect from others; but all that could be expected from our German fellow-citizens towards the end which we all have at heart has been done by them, and well done and cheerfully done.	_
It is some six months since His Royal Highness called the Canadian Parliament in extra session in order to consider and to enact such legislation as might be required on account of the terrible war which had just broken out in Europe, and the effect of which is felt to-day over the whole world. Again we meet, this time according to a process ordered by the constitution, to transact the regular 'business of the

country; but unfortunately the regular business of the country is far outweighed by the necessities and terrible responsibilities of the war. Although we can rejoice that the terrible movement of the German army which was in progress while we were here in the month of August last has been baffled and most victoriously repulsed-that movement, the object of which was the occupation of Paris and the crushing of Prance-still, notwithstanding this early triumph, we must recognize that the horizon is still dark and very much clouded, and unfortunately we cannot see any sign on the horizon which would lead us to hope for an early return of peace. At the outset of the hostilities one man there was who had a clear vision of what was impending, and that man was Lord Kitchener when he stated that the war must be a long protracted struggle, and that perhaps three years would not see the end of it. Many there perhaps were at the time who were inclined to think that this was a pessimistic view, and who believed and hoped that the events would falsify it. And, considering the weapons, the terrible engines of destruction which the application of the discoveries of modern science has added to the art of war-if I may degrade so far the word art-and considering also that European militarism has forced millions of men into armies, perhaps the supposition was not unnatural that, whichever side might win, the struggle must be short and decisive, as it had been in 1866 in the war between Prussia and Austria, and as it had been in the war of 1870 between Prussia and her allies and France. Such was undoubtedly the view of the Kaiser and the German staff, and if they gave any heed to the defence which was forecasted by the word of Lord Kitchener, they evidently felt they could afford to ignore it, supposing they could win before such a defence could be successfully organized. This was the first mistake of the Kaiser, and the first time that Lord Kitchener showed his prescience. It is a historical fact that, when the German armies were mobilized at the end of July last, there was not a man in those armies, from the Kaiser and the German staff down to the lowest corporal and the youngest private, who was not convinced that in four weeks at most they would be in Paris, and France would lay prostrate at their feet. They came within sight of the citadels of Paris, within hearing of their 
bells, when the sudden movement of the armies under Generals Joffre and French threw them back upon the Marne and from the Marne to the Aisne. The Germans were thrown back to the Aisne; but-let us be sincere with ourselves-though defeated, they were neither routed nor crushed. That was in the early days of September and from that time to this the German armies have been unable to penetrate the lines of the Allies, unable to reach the new goal they had set for themselves after they were driven back from Paris: Calais, on the English channel. The most famous regiments of the Prussian army were in vain thrown against the lines of the Allies, and the flower and pride of the German army were sacrificed, I will not say wantonly, although that might be justified. But let us be frank with ourselves. Though, since the month of September the Germans have been unable to pierce the allied lines, yet the Allies have not yet been able to drive the Germans out of France and Belgium and back across the Rhine. The prognostications of Lord Kitchener seem to be verified. It seems probable that the war will become a process of attrition, and that the sacrifice of human lives to this Moloch of war of which we have a daily account, will go on for weeks and months, and the months may lengthen into years. On both sides there have been successes and reverses, and on both sides the blood of men has flowed in torrents. If this were an ordinary war, the very circumstances to which I have just Referred would justify the hope of an early opening for peace. If this were an ordinary war, I repeat, some friendly mediator might step in between the combatants and ask them to desist, to listen to the voice of peace. But this is not an ordinary war.
It is useless at this time to argue about the war; but we can never forget that the struggle which has been going on in Europe for the last six months is a contest between two principles: the principle of liberty and the principle of dominance. If there ever was any doubt upon this point in the mind of anybody, that doubt has been removed by the German professors, German publicists, and German journalists, who have attempted to lay before the civilized world the causes of the war. Though they pretended that Germany was not the aggressor, they plainly showed that the thought at the

back of the head of the Emperor of Germany and, I am afraid, in the minds of the people of Germany themselves, was that Germany was superior to all the rest of the world, that it was her destiny to rule, and rule, as they imagined, for the benefit of mankind. They have made it abundantly clear that if the Allies should be defeated in this war the result would be the annihilation of Belgium as an independent nation, the dismemberment of Prance, the degradation of England to the rank of a second-rate power, the absorption of Holland, and the dominance of Europe by a military despotism. The full significance of the struggle has been more than once declared by the Kaiser himself in this formula: "There is no will but my will, there is no law but my law-the law which I myself lay down." This means that if Germany were to be victorious in this war, a setback for years and perhaps for centuries would be given to the conquests for freedom, for progress, for the advance of democracy, for the elevation of the race, which have been won by the practical good sense of England and by the idealism of France.
If any proof were needed of those conquests, the proof is supplied by the conduct of the dominions, the colonies and the dependencies all over the world which acknowledge British sovereignty. It is a well-known fact that German publicists and German military writers have prophesied that whenever a continental war should come England would be powerless to take part in it; that the moment the first shot was fired England would be torn by internecine factions; her possessions beyond the seas would sever their connection. We must not be surprised at this conclusion of those who believe that the only rule of government is force. But German publicists have yet to learn that there is a greater force than force, and that the British Empire, resting upon the basis of freedom is more durable than the German Empire resting upon the basis of blood and iron. If anything could open their eyes it would be the spectacle of British colonists from all over the world taking their places behind England in the struggle in which she is now engaged. Such a spectacle is well calculated to cause wonder and surprise to the apostles of German " Kultur " and to give hope and joy to those who believe that our system, for which men die, is not a system under which a 2
man, no matter who he be, can say, " There is no will but my will, there is no law but my law-the law which I lay down." It is a system under which the law is laid down by the joint action of the King and the people-the law to which the King himself is subject as much as the lowest of his subjects. Such is the spectacle which has been presented to the world in this war; and it is in many respects a spectacle which gives us British subjects a just right to feel proud.
During the recess my right hon. friend the Prime Minister and some of his colleagues have expressed the view, not in a way to which I take exception, that the British system as it exists to-day ought to be altered so as to give the Dominions a voice in all questions of peace and war. If I mention the matter to-day it is not because I intend here and now to enter into any controversy upon it, though the subject be highly controversial first, from the point of view of the Imperial authorities, who have more than once in recent times stated that in their opinion such an assumption would be perilous, and also in the view of the Dominions, who, if they were to assume such a power, must assume also very heavy burdens in time of peace as well as in time of war. But, I repeat, I do not intend at this moment to enter into any controversy. The task which is weighing upon us is heavy enough not to increase it by the introduction of subjects which may be not only controversial but which at the time may not Pe practical. The time will come when peace will be restored, and then will be the time to discuss these and many other problems which will have to be taken up by all British peoples. In the meantime, for my part, I hardly believe that any system that can be devised, or that can be reduced by legislation to any complete form applicable to the daughter nations of the Empire, can ever have the same inspiring grandeur, or the same patriotic efficiency, as the action of the Dominions all over the world-the voluntary, spontaneous action of all those Dominions-in lining themselves up behind England in the hour of her trial.
Conscription has never met with any favour in the British Isles. It has never been consistent with the genius of the British people to use the strong arm of the law to fill up the ranks of her army. England is the least military of the nations of Europe. She has long given



up the mania for conquest which has been the bane of so many strong nations, and which may yet prove the undoing of Germany. She has not been engaged in any aggressive war since the Seven-Years War, and while the great nations of the continent were devoting their strength, wealth and energy to armaments and military preparations, while they were taking the largest portion of the youth of the country as it came to manhood from productive labour and placing it in camps and barracks, England never forced a single one of her subjects into the army. She kept all her people busy producing and accumulating, with the result that when she was forced into war-forced, I say, and I say advisedly-though her armies were not numerous in comparison with continental armies their prowess in the field never caused her to regret that she had kept to the voluntary system. She was able, out of her wealth, to finance the whole of Europe in the most gigantic struggles, even in that against Napoleon himself, with the result that generally she came out victorious'. There is reason to suppose that compulsion against communities will have the same result as compulsion against individuals, and there is further reason to hope that when the victory has been won-for we have no doubt as to the ultimate victory in the war-there will be a movement amongst all civilized peoples to put an end to armaments and to ensure a lasting era of peace. Let me repeat that it is a struggle between freedom and domination. Into this struggle our people have thrust themselves with all the energy at their command, and all subjects of the King in this country have done, as I believe, their share, and are prepared to do more if need be to attain the end.
The speech from the Throne is confined altogether to the question of the war. Nothing else is mentioned in it.	The
speech simply says that:
My advisers will submit for your consideration measures rendered necessary by the participation of this Dominion in the great task which our Empire has undertaken in this war.
Already there is on the Order Paper a motion by the Prime Minister to provide something like $100,000,000 to that end. Let me say at once that we who sit on this side of the House and who represent His Majesty's Loyal Opposition took our course at the outset of hostilities when we declared that we would support the Government in their war policy. We conceived

that it was our duty to do nothing to embarrass the Government, but on the contrary, to do ^ everything in our power to facilitate the task, the heavy task, which had been placed in the hands of those to whom, for the time being, the Canadian people had entrusted their fortunes. We have acted upon this principle all along, and again we are prepared to act accordingly. We meet the summons of His Royal Highness in the same spirit to-day, in the month of February, as we met it in the month of August last. We are prepared to give to the Government, to those who for the moment have the confidence of the Canadian people under our constitutional system, the support to which they are entitled for the attainment of the great end which we all have in mind.
But whilst we are prepared to do nothing more than, perhaps, we should do, at the same time we are entitled to have from the Government a full statement of the expenditures which they have made out of the $50,000,000 which was placed at their disposal last August. The Canadian people have been generous with their money; they continue to be generous with it; but whilst we are prepared to believe, as indeed we do believe, that mistakes have been made in the manner in which the money has been expended, that errors of judgment have been committed, of those mistakes and of those errors of judgment we are not disposed to be critical.
It would be hardly possible to expect that in the case of the expenditure of some fifty million dollars no mistakes would arise; it is perhaps more than we can expect from human nature; but we can-* not close our eyes to the fact that not only have mistakes been made, but frauds have been committed which have resulted in injury to the health of our troops, and impairment of their efficiency. These frauds have been regarded as so gross and so 'Criminal that the Minister of Militia himself, not more than two or three weeks ago, stated, not once but three or four times at different places in the country, that if he knew the man who supplied the boots, which have been the cause of so much disease, and sickness, and suffering to our soldiers on the plains of Salisbury, that man would deserve to be shot. The honour of the minister is at stake, and so is the credit of the country. It is not impossible to discover the responsible parties. Up to the present the minister is responsible, and it is for him to take the necessary measures to vindi-

cate himself. We have been itold that a commission of three members has been appointed by the Government to investigate this particular matter, and not later than ten or twelve days ago it was stated that the minister himself, not satisfied with this 'inquiry, had instituted a departmental investigation to ascertain the true facts. I do not know if this is all that is intended to be done by the Government; but let me say that the fullest light should !be thrown upon this matter, so that the people of Canada may know where the responsibility lies. No member on this side of the House intends to be critical, and for my part I 'certainly have no such intention; but assuredly we are all gravely concerned that the health and comfort of those brave men who are risking their lives in the cause of the Empire shall have every protection that we can afford. I would say to my hon. friend the Minister of Militia, were he in his seat, that in certain quarters the blame is cast upon him. It is said that the fact that the boots which were supplied to the troops ware not what they ought to have been; is not the fault of the workmanship or of the material supplied, but the fault of the specifications furnished to the manufacturers. The Shoe and Leather Journal, which is a semi-monthly trade journal published in Toronto, in its issue of the 1st of January, states:
Practical shoe manufacturers give credit to the firms who already have executed Government orders. They say that the shoes were made according to specifications, broadly speaking, and In the case of the supplies for the first contingent, under the most trying circumstances. But the specifications are generally not thought to be those for the ' fighting ' shoe. The sole is not heavy enough, and it is not hobnailed or quilted, nor is the heel reinforced by a steel plate. The shank is too narrow and not strong enough to stand spade work. The uppers are not heavy enough in all cases, though sometimes they are sufficiently heavy, but not pliable. In short, the specifications are for a shoe that does very well for use in Canada for parade or training purposes, but which does not answer for wear in England, much less in Europe.
In the same issue of the Shoe and Leather Journal is an interview with Mr. W. V. Matthews, manager of the manufacturing department of the well-known firm of Ames-Holden-MacCready, in which he says:
1 Those shoes were never meant for foreign service,' said Mr. Matthews, ' as the Government well knew that their specifications called for shoes that did not at all resemble the standard army patterns generally endorsed by Great Britain and European nations. It was 2}
not the intention of the Government to set a new style in army footwear for nations that had learned by practical experience what was best suited for war use.
' There is an army shoe,' said Mr. Matthews, picking up an English army model, real service style, ' which is the only make that will stand the wear and tear of actual service conditions. A pair of them weight 65 ounces. The shoes supplied to the Canadian Government would not weight more than 38 ounces, which is about 18 ounces to 20 ounces more than the weight of an ordinary pair of men's welts. You cannot observe both shoes and say they were meant to give the same service. It is ridiculous.
' The shoes supplied members of the first contingent were meant to be used by the soldiers while in training to accustom their feet to heavier footwear. The immediate change from light welts to shoes of the army patterns as used in Europe would have crippled most of the volunteers in a week. Knowing that it would be months before the Canadian force went to the firing line, the Government saw fit to specify shoes such as were ordered, and, speaking generally, they received good value from the Canadian manufacturers who shared in the business. Speaking for our firm, we received an order for 62,500 pairs, or about one-fourth of the entire quantity. Not one pair has been returned or complained about. It is quite possible that some manufacturers may not have been so fortunate.'
I must say, Mr. Speaker, that for my part I am not altogether satisfied with the statements made in this interview. Neither am I prepared, upon that statement, to condemn the Government. There are in it assertions which seem to be somewhat contradictory. I cannot think, for example, that the shoes which were ordered by the Government were not intended for use on foreign service, and were only intended to accustom the feet of the men to the use of the heavier boot of the English soldier. Until I get further information on the sub-ect I am disposed to doubt this statement. I am not prepared, as I say, at the present moment to condemn the Government; but I do say that this is a matter which ought to be thoroughly inquired into, and upon which the fullest information should be given to the Canadian people. The atmosphere is filled with various assertions to the effect that the men who were sent to the front were not properly equipped. But I will not refer now to anything but the defect in the boots, which has been so widely discussed in the press of Canada and of England that it cannot be passed over in silence. I say again that I refer to the matter now, not for any party purpose, but in order that we may have the truth and the whole truth about it, so that we may know upon whose shoulders to place the responsibility, and thus guard against the

recurrence of such mistakes or offences. I refer to the matter now in order that our men who are already at the front-and some of whom have already given up their lives on the fields of France for the Empire -may be enabled to give their whole energy and vigour to the nobig cause they are fighting to uphold.
I do not say this in any carping spirit. I do not want to make any political capital out of it. I am as much a party man as any man in this House, but I should despise myself if I were to attempt to make political capital when the country is in such danger as it is in at the present time. The desire is simply to have everything done that can be done in order that the men whom we send to the front may discharge their duties with the greatest credit to themselves and the greatest benefit to the country and to the whole Empire. This is the spirit which animates those who si't around me here. As I stated a moment ago, so I repeat, we ask for nothing but information, and we hope that upon this and all points the information to which we are entitled will be abundantly afforded.


Right Hon.   S@: Mr. Speaker, I desire to associate myself with what has been so well and so eloquently said by my right hon. friend the leader of the Opposition (Sir Wilfrid Laurier), with regard to the great service rendered by His Royal Highness the Governor General to this country and to the whole Empire by his presence in Canada, by his occupancy of that high position and by the very keen, unfailing, indefatigable interest which he has taken in everything that concerns Canada's part in this war, the proper equipment of our troops and their despatch to the front under proper conditions. I have more reason and better opportunity to know of the interest which His Royal Highness the Governor General has thus taken than have most hon. members of this House, and it was with peculiar pleasure that I listened to the observations of my right hon. friend as well as to the remarks of the hon. member for Waterloo (Mr. Weichel) in that regard.
I desire also to associate myself with what my right hon. friend has said as to the speeches delivered by the mover and seconder of the motion now under consideration. The presence of these gentlemen in this Assembly and the duty they

have been called upon to discharge to-day, and which they have so worthily and eloquently discharged, is at once an exemplification of the principles upon which our Empire is based and of the appreciation of those principles by those in whose countries they are applied. The fact that we have listened to such eloquent and patriotic speeches as those of the hon. member for North Waterloo (Mr. Weichel) and the hon. member for Labelle (Mr. Achim) is of itself a great tribute to those principles. My hon. friend from North Waterloo has spoken of the part which has been taken by the citizens of German descent in the upbuilding of this Empire and particularly in the upbuilding of this Dominion. We have had good reason to know and understand, especially since the outbreak of this war, the patriotism, the loyalty, the devotion of the citizens of German origin to this country. As my hon. friend has well said their position was not free from embarrassment, but their appreciation of the land from which they came, of its institutions and of all it represents in the world, has been wholly consistent with their loyalty to the land of their adoption and the institutions of our Empire. We have those in Canada who although of German descent, were born in Canada and qre Canadians as we are ourselves, understanding as we do with perfect appreciation the liberties which are ours of
5 p.m. right. We have also in this country those who were born in Germany or in Austria-Hungary, who have been asked to come to Canada as immigrants and to join with us in the task of upbuilding this Dominion. So far as the first-named are concerned, not a word need be said; the earnestness and the zeal with which they have joined in all that appertains to the welfare of the Dominion and of the Empire in this war speak for themselves. So far as the others are concerned, I repeat what I said in August last when we were considering matters connected with the war, that those of German birth and those born in the Empire of Austria-Hungary who have come to this country to be citizens of Canada have with very few exceptions borne themselves worthily and well. I believe that I can speak with peculiar knowledge as to this because it has been part of my public duty to make myself acquainted with their sentiments and with the part which they are taking at this juncture of our affairs.
My hon. friend from Labelle (Mr. Achim)

represents here a race which was the pioneer race in this Dominion, a race which has shown a perfect understanding and appreciation of the principles of liberty upon which this Empire is based. My hon. friend's presence here to-day and the eloquent speech from him to which we have listened are in a like manner a tribute to the appreciation by that race in Canada of the liberties which all the citizens of Canada enjoy regardless of creed or of race.
My hon. friends have spoken, and so has my right hon. friend the leader of the Opposition, of the loss which the members of this House have sustained in the death of those who have passed away. The late Mr. Emmerson had a long career in public life and took a very prominent part in the debates of this House, where his industry and his earnestness in all that he undertook were very notable. I join with my hon. friends in extending to the relatives whom he has left behind the sympathy of all the members of this House which I am sure ' is freely extended. My good friends, George Clare and Major Thomas Beattie, have also passed away since we last met. They did not take an active or prominent part in the debates of this House, but they were men who had a long experience in public affairs.
I have already expressed appreciation of my association with them ip public life and of the fine qualities which they made manifest as members of this assembly. They did not often speak, but when they did address the House it was with a knowledge and an earnestness which commended all that they had to say to the consideration of every member.
I have not one word to say in criticism of the observations which my right hon. friend has made to this House with regard to certain matters upon which he felt it desirable to make comments. So far as my own observations during the recess are concerned, I did not discuss the subject to which he has called attention otherwise than by alluding to the probable influence which the events of the past six months may bring to bear upon that question when it does come to be considered. I am very much of the same opinion as my right hon. friend in a good deal of what he Has said to-day in that respect. I for one am the last man in this House who would be disposed to favour or to advocate any system which would deprive the selfgoverning dominions of the Empire of the rights and liberties which they possess m
respect of the control of their own affairs. As to what I have said in the past in that respect, I do not think that I ever went beyond what my right hon. friend himself said some eighteen years ago, when, on the other side of the ocean, he declared to those who held the reifis of power in the United Kingdom: If you desire our aid, call us to your councils. That very shortly expressed an idea in his own mind at that time- and, I daresay, still in his own mind-and beyond that I do not think I have ever gone in any of my utterances regarding this question.
My right hon. friend has also spolcen of the expenditure by the Government of the sum of money voted for war purposes. I agree at once that it is the undoubted right of this House to have the fullest information as to that expenditure, and, if any mistakes or errors in judgment have occurred, to learn of them in order that they shall not be repeated in the future. My right hon. friend has spoken of rumors in the press with regard to the boots which were furnished to the first Canadian contingent, and, I dare say, to those who have been enlisted for service beyond the seas required. So far as I am aware, those boots were ordered in the very early stages of the war upon specifications which were prepared in the Department of Militia many years ago and which have been the authorized specifications of that Department ever since. It may be that if time had permitted it would have been desirable to adopt a stouter type of boot, but I should like to tell my right hon. friend that I have it upon the authority of a man who should know whereof he speaks that in the South African campaign the type of boot used in the British army which has been so highly commended to my right hon. friend, was not found specially suitable for the Canadian forces engaged in that war. I have taken a keen interest in this question of boots and have discussed the matter with a great many persons who were supposed to know what was the best type of boot for such a purpose. I found that there was a great difference of opinion as to what was the best type of boot. Many different specifications have been presented to us and many different types have been considered. The French and British types of boots were placed before me, and I had it pointed out to me in a very forcible way-and in a way that commended itself very much to my

judgment-that the type of boat used in the French army might, for the purposes of our men going to the front, be worthy of consideration as possessing certain qualities which would make it more useful than the British boot to which my right hon. friend has referred. For many weeks a committee has been considering the best type of boot to be used, and I understand that one has been decided upon which will prove very serviceable.
My hon. friend speaks of illness or disease having been occasioned on Salisbury Plain by the use of the boots which wrere supplied. I am bound to say that I have no information of that kind, and if my right hon. friend possesses information to that effect I shall be very glad indeed to have him furnish it to the Government. Every one knows that the weather conditions which during the past few months have prevailed throughout the British Isles, and particularly on Salisbury Plain, have been of an unusr&lly severe character, and I doubt very much indeed whether the type of .boot supplied to the British army, to the French army, or to any other army, would have withstood the effects of the conditions to which our men were necessarily but unfortunately subjected during their sojourn upon Salisbury Plain. However, as I have said, my right hon. friend is quite within his rights when he desires and insists upon having full information as to the expenditures which we have made and ras to any mistakes or errors in judgment, if any such have *occurred; and I for one will most heartily concur in any effort which he may direct to that very worthy end.
My right hon. friend and those who have preceded me in this debate have alluded to the appalling war which has raged in Europe for the last six months or more, and it is not necessary or desirable at this moment that I should refer, except in a general way, to the causes which brought it about. Germany has appealed to the civilized world for judgment as to the causes of the war, and the world has already given judgment against her. John Bright said in the British Parliament many years ago that the moral law was not written for men alone in their individual character, but was written as well for nations. The war has been brought about through the violation of that principle by *the military autocracy of Prussia, in so far as they desiied to impose upon the rest of their world their ideas of militarism,

their lack of regard for weaker nationalities, land the principle, openly avowed, that treaties are binding only in so far as tne necessities of any State may permit, and that the State itself, in exercising its military power, shall be the sole judge of that necessity.
One observation which I desire to make in collection with the causes of the war is this. Germany's ally, Italy, did not join in the war because it was a war not of defence, but of aggression; thus is Germany answered; by her own ally. The ex-Prime Minister of Italy not long ago in the Italian Parliament made it very clear not only that Italy regarded the war as a war of aggression, but that the war itself was contemplated and planned by Austria :and by Germany as far back as 1913. I desire to place upon the pages of " Hansard " three or four lines which make that to my mind absolutely plain. He said:
I answered Marquis Di San Biuliano thus:
' If Austria goes against Servia a * casus foederis ' evidently does not exist. It is an action she accomplishes on her own. account. It is not defensive, because nobody thinks of attacking her. It is necessary to declare this to Austria in the most formal manner hoping that Germany will act to dissuade Austria from a very dangerous adventure.
That adventure was not carried out in 1913, but was carried out in 1914, and those of us who have sought to make ourselves acquainted with the trend of events during the six months which preceded this war will have learned, as I certainly have learned, that every indication in financial circles, every indication by which men throughout the world form their judgment as to the stability or otherwise of peaceful conditions, everything that transpired during the six months that preceded this war pointed to the fact that some great event was coming in the immediate future.; and the testimony that that event had been planned back as far as July 1, 1913, comes, as I have said, from Italy, the ally of Austria. I know that every hon. gentleman in this House had made himself acquainted with the Yellow Book which has been issued by the French Government and in which is set forth a copy of a most remarkable secret report obtained by the French ambassador at Berlin and transmitted by him to his own Government as far back as November, 1913. Some of the passages of that secret report, very brief passages, may usefully be quoted in order that we may

understand this also, that the war which did come in August last was a war which Germany and Austria intended to force if the other nations of Europe were not prepared to submit to their domination. From this secret report to the German Government I quote the following:-
It is our sacred duty to sharpen the sword which has been placed in our hand, and to hold it ready for our defence as well as to strike our enemy. The idea that our armaments are a reply to the armaments and policy of the French must be instilled into the people. The people must be accustomed to think that an offensive war on our part is a necessity if we are to combat the adversary's provocations. We must act with prudence in order to arouse no suspicion, and so as to avoid the crises which might damage our economic life. Things must be so managed that under the weighty impression of powerful armaments, of considerable sacrifices, and of political tension, the outbreak of war (Losschlagen) shall be considered as a deliverance, because after it would come decades of peace and of prosperity, such as those which followed 1870. The war must be prepared for from a financial point of view. There is much to be done in this direction. The distrust of our financiers must not be aroused, but nevertheless there are many things which it will be impossible to hide.
1 gather from the press that the German Government have denied that any such report was made; but having read it carefully, those who have made themselves acquainted with the tendency of thought in Prussia and throughout Germany during recent years, might seem to find upon its face a veritable hall-mark of authenticity.
The attempt has been made in the German propaganda throughout the world and especially in the United States of America to make it appear that Belgium and Great Britain had already violated the neutrality of Belgium before the German army invaded that country. What are the facts? The facts are that a certain conversation took place between British officers and Belgian officers which was of so informal a character that no note of it, as Sir Edward Grey has declared, remains or ever was in the British foreign office. What was the conversation? To what did it relate? It related simply to the part that Great Britain should take and must in honour take if Belgium should be first invaded by Germany. And the German propaganda, sent out to the world, and especially to this continent, declares that the neutrality of Belgium was thus violated. Suppose a burglar had broken into a house, clubbed the inmate into insensibility and robbed him, and was caught redhanded in the act; suppose that afterwards he raised a plea of
self-defence and to support that plea of self-defence produced a letter found upon his victim in which a neighbour had said that if an attack were made upon the house he and his sons would come to the rescue. That is the plea which Germany puts forward to-day. It is absurd on the face of it and it would be laughable if it were not associated with so grave a tragedy as that which has been before the world during the past six months.
I have spoken before of the aims and ideals of Prussian militarism. Germany's action in forcing this awful war has received the condemnation of the world and no less severe is the condemnation of the methods by which her forces have carried it on. Prussian militarism has taught its armies to employ means and methods, relentless and remorseless, which seem to have been designed to deprive the nations with whom they are contending not only of their material but of their intellectual and moral resources. Cities, towns, villages, hamlets without number destroyed; thousands of houses looted and fired to conceal the crime; non-combatants slaughtered without cause and without provocation; ancient cathedrals, historic churches, renowned seats of learning, works of art, all destroyed without cause apparently, and without provocation; hostages selected whose lives were forfeited upon the least fault committed by those over whom they could have no control-all this has been made apparent to the world, and the world has pronounced judgment upon it.
I have spoken of France and Belgium, but some of our own kinsmen across the sea have had a taste of these methods of warfare. What of the women and children mangled and slain at Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby? It is well for Canadians, when estimating the causes that have led us to take part in this war, to remember that but for the protection of the British navy, men and women born under our fair Canadian skies, non-combatants, might have been torn and mangled by shells- from German ships, inspired by the same motives of hate and of frenzied revenge. Those prompt and ready to shower shells upon unfortified towns. and helpless non-combatants did lately meet a British squadron in the North Sea, and we are proud indeed to remember that the men of the navy acquitted themselves well and worthily, and in accordance with the ancient traditions of the fleet, so that the enemy ships intending to repeat the ravages occasioned by the first raid, quickly

turned their prows to the shelter of their mine-fields.
But a more extraordinary development of the spirit of terrorism has recently startled the world. Apparently by the latest pronouncement of the German Government, we must understand that merchant ships are to be sunk by submarines without an opportunity for the crew to escape. It has been announced that Germany's proposals extend to all waters surrounding the British Islands, and that merchant ships with noncombatants on board may be sunk by submarines in direct violation of all recognized usages in warfare and of every instinct and dictate of humanity. It has been a rule of war upon the sea that a captured merchant ship should be taken into port and condemned by due process of law. The practice of the nations has not been uniform as to exceptions to that rule. Some have established an exception by reason of convenience, and others by reason only of necessity. No criticism has been made of the action of German ships in the Atlantic or in the Pacific which have sunk British merchant ships, because as Germany has no nearby port, there was no opportunity to take those ships into port to have them condemned by forms of law. But I am not aware that any civilized nation has ever before established or adopted the principle that a merchant ship with noncombatants on board might be sunk without giving them an opportunity to escape. That proposal strikes the world in a startling way. And not less startling is an incident which came to our attention through the press not long ago, that in the British channel a torpedo was fired at a hospital ship, so marked and designated that there could be no failure to know that it was a ship used solely for hospital purposes. I venture to think that the Government of Germany, in adopting measures of this character, is in fact, as has been very well said by one of the great journals of the United States, waging war not against Great Britain, but against the world, and the world I hope will know how to deal with a policy and with measures of that character.
My right hon. friend has said, and said truly, that this war is a conflict of ideals. On the one hand there is the ideal of liberty and justice, the ideal of respect for the sacred obligation of treaties, the ideal of regard for the rights of the smaller nations, 
the ideal of modern democracy; and on the other hand, there is the doctrine that force is above all right, and indeed constitutes the highest right; that the power of the nation must be expressed and asserted in militarism and used for further extension of territory, wealth, and influence; the conception that the Prussian militarism, and the German culture which it dominates, shall also dominate the world. There cannot be any doubt as to the issue of such a conflict.
In August last we decided that Canada should take her proper part in this war. Thirty-one thousand men are to-day in the British Isles or in France; one thousand are at Bermuda; and nearly ten thousand are doing garrison duty in Canada. Nearly fifty thousand men have been enlisted in order that they may in the first place stand as an armed force for the protection of this country and of our people, and secondly, that they may go forward from time to time, as there shall be need, to the end that this war shall be brought to an honourable and triumphant issue. Our proposal, which has been disclosed to the country since the last session of Parliament, was this; that m addition to the men who had gone forward from Valcartier to Salisbury Plain, 30,000 men should be enlisted and put in training, and that from that force there should go forward from time to time as the British authorities might be prepared to receive them, further expeditionary forces; and that upon the despatch of any such further expeditionary force men should be enlisted here in Canada to take their place. The number was subsequently increased to fifty thousand, and I am glad to inform the House that the response to the demand for men to perform this noble and patriotic duty has been all that any of us could have desired or hoped. Our achievement in that regard is only to be limited by the need, and we feel assured-we have good cause to be assured by what has already taken place in France-that these men when they go to the front will do their duty, will stand with the other troops of the Empire and with our Allies in a determined and patriotic endeavour to bring the struggle to a victorious issue.
The unity of purpose which has inspired, not only this Dominion, but the whole Empire, speaks for itself. I had the opportunity some few weeks ago of reading a

debate which took place in the Council of India. It was upon a motion proposed by one of the native members of the Council, and I invite all hon. gentlemen in this House who have the opportunity, to read that debate. I venture to say that, having read it, they will agree with me that in its sentiment, its strong and earnest patriotism, and its excellence of diction, it will compare favourably with any debate whether in the Imperial Parliament or in the parliament of any of the dominions. You say that India regarded participation in this war as a duty? India put her case on a much higher plane. India asserted her right to take part in this war and was proud that she possessed that right. And throughout the King's dominions, every race, every tribe, the smallest possession, the remotest island, have all tendered their aid. So far as the whole Empire is concerned, the situation was well summed up by the late Admiral Mahon in a letter which he wrote in October last to a friend in England shortly before his deatn. In it he says:
But the testimony to the uprightness and^the efficiency of her imperial rule, given by' the strong adhesion and support of India and the Dominions, is a glory exceeding that of pitched battle and overwhelming victory.
In the path of Germany's ambition to dominate the world has stood our Empire, and the chief bulwark of the British Empire is the British Navy. I repeat that it has done its work worthily and well-. I am sure that none of us can appreciate all that has been involved and is still involved in that silent winter vigil in the North Sea. No deeds of the Vikings ever surpassed the courage and endurance of these sailor heroes.
As my right hon. friend has well said, be under no misapprehension as to the character of this war. The struggle is formidable and the task tremendous. Germany's military power has amazed the world. On the one frontier and on the other she has held back the forces of the allied nations. She strove to make her military power commensurate with her ambition of world-wide dominance. We have but held out own for many months. When our armies now being organized take the field we may hope with confidence for greater things. In that connection it is appropriate that I should read . to the House a despatch which I have just received from Mr. Harcourt, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and which is in these words:
[Prom Mr. Harcourt to the Governor General.] London, February 5, 1915.
Nearly four months have now passed since the first Canadian contingent arrived in the United Kingdom. It was recognized on its arrival that Canada had sent a fine body of men constituting a most valuable addition to the Crown's fighting forces. Training has been continued in the time that has since elapsed and is now practically completed under unprecedented conditions of climate, which have involved discomfort in spite of every effort on ine part of His Majesty's government to alleviate the hardships which have been borne by the contingent with a cheerful resolve that augurs well for -their endurance of the arduous conditions of actual active service.
The contingent was inspected by His Majesty the King on Thursday last, and His Majesty was much gratified at the marked general improvement since he last inspected them, ana at the spirit of eagerness and loyal enthusiasm which fills all ranks. The contingent will shortly join their Canadian comrades of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry at the front. These are acquitting themselves in a manner worthy of the great Dominion to which they belong, and some of them have already given their lives for the great cause for which the Empire is now fighting.	-
Six months ago Great Britain declared war on Germany, taking her place besides the allies in the greatest war ever yet waged.
The object of Germany was to dominate first Europe, and eventually the world. This result she hoped to achieve firstly, by overwhelming and crushing France by a rapid advance through Belgium, whose neutrality she shamefully violated, and then by dealing with Russia at her own leisure. She was to have the assistance of Austria against Russia after the former had crushed Servia out of existence.
This programme for which Germany had made the most elaborate preparations, she proceeded to more or less successfully carry out, until her armies in France arrived at the line of the Marne river; here, however, the tide of invasion reached its high water mark, ana it has since been driven back to the line of the river Ainse. The battle front now extends from Ostend in a line due south to Soissons, and thence southeast to the Swiss frontier at Basle. On the western frontier this line has remained stationary for several months. In the eastern theatre of war Germany has met with no greater success and the Russians everywhere more than hold their own. The great effort essential to the success of Germany has been foiled, and except for one success in East Prussia she has gained no single victory, she has lost two and a quarter millions of her best and bravest soldiers, and any fresh effort will now have to be made with greatly inferior and disheartened troops. Thanks to the work of our navy, Germany is now feeling economic pressure in many ways. In Austria there are still considerable forces in the field but her troops have suffered severe reverses b9th from Servia and Russia, and she can no longer be counted upon by Germany as a really powerful ally. Of even less account is Turkey, who has -suffered severe defeats from Russian forces, and results have been the same for her as regards British forces in Mesopotamia and on the Suez' Canal within the last few days. In a far dif-

ferent position are Great Britain and her allies. The soldiers of France and Belgium, fully confident in the justice of our cause, are burning to clear the soil of their native countries of the hated invaders. Russia, whose troops have throughout fought with indomitable courage, is preparing herself for further great efforts. At sea the British navy is supreme and has recently inflicted a severe defeat upon the German navy. Aided by our gallant Japanese allies, most of the German colonies have already been captured. The power of Great Britain and her allies increases daily in strength, whereas the power of their enemies Is distinctly on the wane. The existing situation has been brought about without the vast resources of the British Empire having yet been called into play.
The splendid contingents from our overseas dominions, from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, etc.,-in fact from every quarter of the globe-have not yet with the exception of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, been engaged.
The above with the new armies now perfecting their training in England should exercise a preponderating influence on the ultimate decision.
(Signed) Harcourt.
It is only just in connection with that to pay a tribute to the valour of the British army in France and to that of all the allied forces. I had the opportunity of reading a very intimate account of the retreat from Mons, and I venture to say that no successful retreat was ever conducted under greater difficulties or in the face of more overwhelming odds. The greatest victory ever won shed no more splendid lustre on the British army than the valour, the heroism and the endurance displayed during that retreat.
The Princess Patricia regiment now at the front has acquitted itself with credit, and we remember that one who is very dear to a member of this House is serving in that regiment. We hope and pray that our colleague (Mr. Michael Clark) will always have good news of his son. The first Canadian Expeditionary force will soon be at the front. We believe, indeed we are sure that they will so bear themselves that Canada will have just cause to be proud. Some have already given their .lives, as Mr. Harcourt has said, for the cause of freedom and justice, and I am reminded of some lines that were written by an Englishman, who for many years has lived in Canada, during the South African war, when news came that some of our men had fallen.
Half mast your flags? Nay, hoist them to the head,
You reap the harvest where you sowed the corn.
See, from the far graves of your gallant dead,
An Empire born.

As has been said, there are vacant seats in this House-seats of those who have gone forth to fight for the Dominion and Empire. The absence of these men in that cause speaks more eloquently than any words I could utter. God grant that we may see them once more with us when victory has been attained. I have had occasion during the last three or four months to write letters to my good friend, Dr. Beland-I hope they have reached him, although I do not know-congratulating him on the service which he has given in Belgium; and I have had some communications which I had the pleasure of transferring to my right hon. friend the leader of the Opposition and which sets forth the hope that he may be released and may have his freedom at no distant date.
A great Belgian prelate ha3 spoken in eloquent terms of the ordeal through which his country has passed and of the spirit of patriotism which thereupon swept over that country in strong tide. The words are so splendid and eloquent that I think it not amiss to give them to the House. 1 am alluding to the pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier which has been published alreauy in part in this country:
" God will save Belgium, my brethren, you cannot doubt it; nay, rather, He is saving her. Across the smoke of conflagration, across the stream of blood, have you not glimpses, do you not perceive signs, of His love for us? Is there a patriot among us who does not know that Belgium has grown great? Nay, which of us would have the heart to cancel this last page shattered nation? When in her throes she exult in the brightness of the glory of this shattered nation? When in her throes sue brings forth heroes, our Mother Country gives her own energy to the blood of those sons of hers. Let us acknowledge that we needed a lesson in patriotism. There were Belgians, and many such, who wasted their time and their , talents in futile quarrels of class with class, of race with race, of passion with personal passion.
Yet when, on the second of August, a mighty foreign power, confident in its own strength and defiant of the faith of treaties, dared to threaten us in our independence, then did all Belgians, without difference of party, or of condition, or of origin, rise up as one man, close-ranged about their own king, and their own government, and cry to the invader: ' Thou shalt not go through ! '
At once, instantly, we were conscious of our own patriotism. For down within us all is something deeper than personal interests, than personal kinships, than party feeling, and this is the need and the will to devote ourselves to that more general interest which Rome termed the public thing, ' Res publica.' And this profound will within us is patriotism."
When the spirit of Canada was searched by the thrill of the first great call to de-

fend our Empire, we also were conscious of an influence and an emotion infinitely more commanding and compelling than that of the material interests which had so closely absorbed our attention. Where-ever the peril was most truly realized there the response to the call was most clearly manifest.
We happily have been spared the tempest of death and fire and destruction which bits devastated Belgium, but we have seen and we shall still see our best and bravest go forth to battle in a righteous cause for which some shall yield up their lives. With the searching of spirit which has come to us in these solemn days we have seen and felt the soul of the nation profoundly moved; stirred as never before in all our history.
The events of the past six months mark a new stage in our nationhood; a new chapter in the book of our destiny has been opened. The strength of our Empire bound by the ties of liberty and autonomous self-government, has been tested and it has held firm and true. In no respect have the expectations -of the Prussian autocracy been more utterly disappointed and falsified than in this. From these great Dominions have gone and will still go forth the free manhood of a great Empire to fight for a cause which involves not alone our institutions, our freedom and our destiny, but those of the world. Fighting in such a cause we do not, we dare not, doubt the issue.
At six o'clock the House took recess.
The House resumed at eight o'clock.


Mr. MICHAEL CLARK (Red Deer):: Mr. Speaker, I do not propose to keep the House for any lengthy period in debating the Address; but if I abstain from lengthy speech it is not because I consider that the Empire being in a state of war at all puts upon Parliament the duty of abdicating its proper functions. The duty of Parliament in regard to the Address is to debate that Address with a view to helpfulness in the matters to which it refers, and^ I should think myself lacking in my duty if I left unskid anything I ought to say because the Empire is in a state of war.
, I wish to endorse very emphatically the remark made by my right hon. friend the Prime Minister to the effect that in the fact that the Address has been moved by a member of German extraction and seconded
by a member of French extraction we have a remarkable evidence of the greatness of the flag under which we live and of all that flag stands for. I wish that the fact of what has happened in this House this afternoon could be brought to the attention and careful thought of those who dictate the policies of the great German Empire. I certainly believe that if the thinkers of that nation brought unbiased minds to the consideration of the facts it would shed a flood of light upon them which probably they will not get from any other source until the Allies have finished the lesson they are giving them along rather different lines.
I wish also to join in the congratulations offered by my right hon. friends on both sides of the House to the mover and the seconder of the Address. If I dwell particularly upon the speech of the mover, it is because I am more familiar with the language in which he spoke than withrthe language of the seconder. My hon. friend from Waterloo (Mr. Weichel) discharged a task of very great delicacy and difficulty with very great ability. I wish to congratulate him upon the courage and the adroitness with which he discharged that task. He need not have apologized, I am sure, in a free country such as this, for anything that he said. He seems to feel it a little, having to speak in favour of the great German people from whom he derives his origin. Well, for his encouragement, I would like to tell him that the men I most admire in the last hundred years of British politics are men who opposed their nation when at war, even speaking from within that nation. The greatest men in British politics within that period, in my opinion, were Richard Cobden and John Bright, and I think the events of the present war go far to justify my opinion. It is the happy position of our Empire today that we are engaged in a war in which there is practically no difference of opinion throughout the whole length and breadth of that Empire. It is no small part of our strength that we know and believe we are right and that the whole moral and material force of the Empire is behind the army and navy of His Majesty King George. There have been wars in which that was by no means the state of things even in the old land. One of these wars was the Crimean and it seems to me to be not only a legitimate but a most helpful advantage to be derived from a debate such

as this, and from a condition of war such as we find ourselves in, that we can learn the lessons that the past has to teach us. When the Crimean war was fought there were only three or four men of prominence in England who had the courage to oppose that war. The Crimean war was fought to bolster up what every one knows to-day is past bolstering up, to bolster up the rot-tenest thing that exists on the face of the earth-rottener even than German Imperialism-the Turkish Empire. We fought Rus-si a to keep up Turkey. There is nobody talking of fighting Russia to keep up Turkey to-day. The fact is, the Russian hear and the British lion are both concentrated on that old bird, and when the two animals have finished with it there will not be very much of the old bird left. Let me point out that the wise men of Crimean days were Richard Cobden and John Bright, who said then that Turkey was rotten, and lost their seats in Parliament for saying it-but did not lose any of their greatness or of the lasting admiration of their countrymen. I lived a few years later to waken one fine morning and read the speech of the late Lord Salisbury in which he said, in his large, cynical way, that we now find that in the Crimean we " had put our money on the wrong horse." Everybody, of course, is in favour of the bag-and-baggage policy in regard to Turkey to-day; but when Mr. Gladstone introduced that phrase it was not safe for him to walk along the streets of London, and he had his windows broken in Harley street-because of the tremendous need of bolstering up the Turkish Empire. I offer these historical observations to encourage my hon. friend from Waterloo to get, if the need ever should arise, an even larger degree of courage than that for which we admire him. '
There are a few observations in his speech which I am sure he will forgive me for adverting to. He referred to those who knew that this war was coming. Well, the Prime Minister (Sir Robert Borden) did not know it, for he told us last summer that the war had come upon us with such alarming suddenness that it had taken all of us by surprise. No one in the British Government knew it was coming, for Mr. Lloyd George has told us since the war broke out that Germany and England were on better terms than they had been for fifteen years before, that no member of the Cabinet expected war, and that he himself

had been about to go away on a holiday. So, those who knew that the war was coming <were really mortals of such insignificance that their opinions did not count, and we never heard of them until my hon. friend referred to them to-day in the somewhat vague way which I have indicated.
I wish to endorse what the hon. gentleman has said as to the greatness and importance of the work done by the British navy. His words of admiration were so strong that the work of the navy would seem to have been something of a surprise to him. Well, it was not a surprise to some of us. I am one of those who never particularly admired Germany from some points of view. Neither did I ever fear her, nor did I ever doubt what would happen to her navy if she ventured it against the British navy. The diflieulty is our navy has not enough to do: its diflficulty is in finding the German navy. I hope I am not trenching on dangerous ground; I fear I am not as adroit as my hon. friend, but come more directly to my subject; but if he talked navy to this extent, I shall not be breaking any truce in following his example.
My hon. friend showed wonderful independence of mind, as my hon. friend the Minister of Finance did in his speeches throughout the country, in adopting a very large portion of the teachings of one of the men whom I have already mentioned here this evening; I mean the teachings of Richard Cobden. If he reads Cobden's speeches my hon. friend will find that he dwelt continuously upon the need of a country in the following of a wise economic policy seeing to its production. Well, as a very humble follower of that great man, I must claim not any originality but faithfulness to my teacher in having preached for years this doctrine of more production being needed for Canada, and you can understand that when my hon. friend the Minister of Finance takes up the tale in the country and my hon. friend the hon. member for North Waterloo takes it up in this House, my heart rejoices that at last Cobden has come into, at least, some of his own. And I have no doubt that in the case of such very young men as my two friends opposite, he will come into more of his own, because they are both very good learners, and in this matter they are certainly following a very great teacher. Of course, there is this about it, the hon. member for North Waterloo has to go a great deal farther in his

study of Cobden than he has yet gone, because after talking in a way that filled me with hope about increase of production, he went on to say a word or two about the "made in Canada" campaign. That was most disappointing to me. I do not think he has chosen a hopeful time to introduce that phrase into Parliament, any more than the Government in their documents have done so for I think the phrase is hinted at in some of the documents that have been put out in recent times by the Department of Trade and Commerce. I think, I say, that he has not chosen a hopeful time for introducing this phrase into Parliament. In the first place, it savours of the phrase "made in Germany," and I am a sufficiently good subject of the British Empire not to want to copy any of Germany's ideas at the present moment. I do not want to copy hei fiscal ideas, anyhow; I do not want to copy her phrases. Let it be remembered, Sir, that this "made in Germany" idea takes you to the root of the whole matter; it takes you to the very defect in the German character which it is costing the world a good deal of trouble to correct. Of recent years Germany has not only been frightening off the goods of foreign nations; she has actually been trying to teach her people not to use the words of foreign nations; she has been cleansing her dictionaries of all foreign words. Facilis descensus Averni-get rid of foreign words, Germany said; keep out foreign goods. There is your pan-Germanism; there is the wrong spirit which has been instilled into the German people. I want to call attention to the fact that in the very document which my right hon. friend the Prime Minister quoted, the French Yellow Paper, in so many words the privileges conferred upon the Yunkers by protection in Germany are referred to, as at least one of the contributory causes of this war. That will be found by careful students of this French Yellow document. I do not know what my hon. friend the Minister of Finance thinks about this cry of " Made in Canada." It is not a very good method of raising revenue and I am sure my hon. friend must be giving a great deal of thought to the raising of revenue in these times. If tnere is one thing that is now exercising the mind of the Minister of Finance night and day, whenever he is awake, it is the question of raising revenue. If we go too far with the policy of my hon. friend the hon. member for North Waterloo, whatever is my hon. friend the Minister of Finance to do?
only one course is open to him-but we will touch upon this matter, perhaps, in the debate on the Budget. If we get everything made in Canada, what is my hon. friend going to do for revenue from the tariff? Even at the present time it is not expanding as he would like to see it expand, and I think it was very wrong on the part of the mover of the Address to put these obstacles in the way of my hon. friend the Finance Minister at this particular time. Having regard to the subsequent portions of the debate, I think that the last thing I should have mentioned as an article that could be made in Canada would have been boots; I would not have said anything about boots and shoes at that moment anyhow. I do not, however, want to go further into that question. It appears that protection is a very delicate institution; its shoes may be all right for times of peace, but protection cannot stand the strain of war. I always thought protection to be a pretty seedy thing, and the-light the war is throwing upon it is not improving its appearance.
There is one part of the mover's address upon which I wish to congratulate him heartily, because he spoke very sincerely, from the fullness of his heart, and I am sure that a very large number of people will be speaking in the same way before this war is over. He referred to one of the tasks in front of the Allies as the eradication of militarism. Here again he is a most hopeful disciple of Cobden. I congratulate him, and I congratulate Cobden, so long gone, upon the increase of his following. I was glad to hear that opinion endorsed by my right hon. friend and leader. I was much interested in the passage between my two right hon. friends on this question of our participation in the affairs of Empire in this very connection. I think that most certainly one of the results of this war will be that a large portion of the civilized world will seek above all other things a way past these gigantic armaments which have been and which are to-day the curse of the world. There is an old friend amongst our Latin proverbs to which there cannot be any harm in referring in this connection; the point was raised by my hon. friend anyhow. No one to-day, I think, who has any regard for his own reputation will rise before any serious body of his fellow-countrymen and say that there is any sense left in the old Latin doctrine: to be prepared for war is the best way to maintain peace. If there had been anything in that, Mr. Speaker, we had surely arrived at the millennium just before

this war broke out. The fact of the matter is that this is one of the most important lessons that we can learn from the war. We on this continent of all men ought to take our share in teaching this lesson as one of the lessons of the war.. We are in the happy position of being the citizens of one great nation to the north of the forty-ninth parallel, having another great nation to the south of us. If armaments were the way to keep the peace, the three thousand-mile boundary line between these two great nations should be studded with fortresses from end to end, but we have not a fortress on the whole of that line, and we are just about to celebrate one hundred years of peace between these two great nations. We have a right, therefore, to point to that condition of affairs and to say to the backward nations of Europe: we have arrived at a better condition of civilization upon this continent and it is for you to come up to our platform and live in the more enlightened society which you can find on this side of the Atlantic.
The little dispute between my two right hon. friends might very well be left as they left it; but I was very much interested, as one who has studied the question of Imperial federation, in what I venture to call that little dispute. I was strucK, when I read the Prime Minister's speeches, with his reference to the fact, by way of a very mild prophecy, that he was still hankering after a closer connection, by Imperial legislation or arrangement, with the mother country. I must say that the answer of the right hon. the leader of the Opposition this afternoon was perfect in argument and perfect in form in every way. The defence of the Prime Minister for having made his remark was very good, so far as a tu quoque defence can ever be. He defended the remark, which, after all, was a very harmless one, by stating that my right hon. friend and leader (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) had made a similar remark eighteen years ago. I reflected that it is just possible that a successor of my right hon. friend's might make that remark eighteen years from now, and if that is all that ever comes from this scheme I cannot see, from such harmless remarks at such long intervals, any great chance of a gigantic scheme of Imperial federation being evolved. I have, on previous occasions, dwelt on this question at considerable length, and do not propose referring to it further.
There was so little of a debatable nature either in the address or in the speeches which we have heard this afternoon that,

as I said to begin with, I did not rise to make any lengthy remarks. There are, however, one or two plain things that as a plain man I may be allowed to say. In my judgment, as in the war session last summer and in the interval that has elapsed from that session until now, so now, there is one paramount duty before Parliament and the country, and that paramount duty is to get behind the' men in the trenches and to keep behind them. That I think to be the paramount duty of Parliament and the country. If we wanted any encouragement along these lines, we should find it by looking at what is going on in the Imperial Parliament. If we needed further stimulation along these lines we should certainly find it in the people of the old land and of the whole Empire, and we should find it in the remotest hamlets of this Dominion of Canada. I am pleased to testify, as coming from the West, that if you call a meeting anywhere there you find but one spirit at the present time: whether the meeting be for the support of the Belgian relief fund, the Patriotic fund or the Red Cross, we find every man, woman and child in arms impressed with this thought, that we are in the presence of a gigantic task and that nothing must be allowed to distract our attention from that task.
There is one rule of conduct which, as far as I am concerned as a member of this Opposition, I have laid down for myself, and that is to do nothing and say nothing that will interfere with our presenting a united front to the common foe. That is the primary duty of the Opposition as it is the primary duty of Parliament and of the country. There are, however, subsidiary duties which lead up to the discharge of the main duty, and I take it that the Address raises these subsidiary duties in a very acute form. The first of these duties is one which we shall discuss more fully upon the Budget itself:	It is that of raising
money; and the second is the duty, which devolves more particularly upon the Government, of expending money. With regard to the amount that the Government proposes to raise, I think I can say for the gentlemen on this side of the House that no challenge will be offered to their policy. Whatever they ask for, whatever is necessary for carrying out Canada's share in the great war in which we are engaged, we, of the Opposition, shall offer no objection. If wrong methods, according to our views, are used to raise the money, as I said to begin with, I do not conceive that war leads Par-

liament to abdicate any of its functions, and certainly we shall not be debarred from offering reasonable and I would hope helpful criticism of the methods of the Government in raising the money where we conceive them to be wrong.
In regard to the spending of the money, my right hon. leader hinted this afternoon that a very large sum has disappeared since last summer and that the Opposition and the country are entitled to all information which can be given with prudence by the Government as to how that money has been spent and how it has been husbanded. We cannot forego our right of reasonable criticism upon any acknowledged facts of the spending of the money; to forego such criticism would be to share the responsibility for the spending of it, and that responsibility we must absolutely decline. We are at one with the Government in the policy of spending; but if there has been waste, if there has been misappropriation, which is vastly worse than waste, we decline all responsibility. In that connection the Government alone are responsible, and at the proper time they will be brought into judgment by the people and the Parliament of Canada for any proved waste or misappropriation. I think that if one is engaged in putting out a burning building, to use a homely illustration, and gets some help to do it, one would not be too critical, if plenty of water were going on the building, if a little escaped to one side; but if some one comes along who is responsible for the putting out of the fire in the building and diverts some of the water that should be putting out the fire into his own garden plot, then that will be a case for criticism, that will be a case which the Government should look into and remedy at the earliest possible moment. However, at this juncture, having stated our position, that we decline the slightest responsibility for any such proceeding, I woud personally deprecate anything on the part of the Opposition in the way of partisan strife or the very appearance of partisan strife.
But let me say, and say very strongly, in this connection that the Government have very distinct duties as well as the Opposition. The Government must so conduct their business at this time, whether in or out of Parliament, whether in discussion or in organization, as not to provoke partisan strife or partisan criticism on the part of the
Opposition. It is no use blinking our eyes to certain facts. Parliament has not been in session for six or seven months, and I do not propose to blink my eyes to some happenings to which I think it necessary in the public interest that reference should be made. The most violent form of partisan strife that can possibly be initiated in any country is a general election. I think everybody will agree that partisan discussion is at its best in a general election-or at its worst. Perhaps I ought to correct that: Perhaps it finds a lower level still in the literature that is issued prior to an election. With regard to party literature, I want to claim before this House and the country that we on this side have an absolutely clean sheet. From the moment that war broke out the bureau was dosed. So far as I am concerned, I have never seen a document emanate from it since that time, of a party nature or of any other nature. Where is the laugh of my hon. friends now?


Some hon. MEMBERS:: Oh.


Michael Clark: Can they produce a leaflet
or a document? Not a single one. And I should be wanting in common manliness if I did not assert it. I am going to state something else now that is of a very different nature. When I was coming down on the train to this session of Parliament, there was handed to me a bunch an inch and a quarter thick of literature that had emanated from another bureau. I was surprised beyond measure, for I had seen nothing of it to that moment. It was handed to me with the statement that it had gone out in bunches in the fall of last year. Now, I want to say very plainly that to send such literature out in the fall of the year was simply to provoke party strife, and I trust there will be no need to make another complaint of this kind. I was amazed at the size of the full line of documents, which was entirely out of keeping with what I conceived to be the duty of the hour. A very remarkable thing is that the date of those documents synchronized with the irresponsible cries of certain sballowbrains in Toronto and elsewhere, that we ought to have another general election. I want to tell this House very plainly that, so far as I have been able to observe, at least eighty per cent of the business and common-sense people of this country were disgusted with the whole procedure. I do not know what there was in it. I do not believe for a moment that

my right hon. friend the Prime Minister had any cognizance of that literature, or that he ever dreamt of a general election.
I decline to believe it. How could I believe it in the presence of such an address as we had from him this afternoon, breathing the highest patriotism, the utmost sympathy with the men at the front?
And I have another reason for not believing that. For my hon. friend the Minister of Public Works (Mr. Rogers) went up to ' Toronto about that time, and in an interview on this question stated, if the papers correctly reported him, that the idea of a general election had never entered the head of the Prime Minister. So that in declining to believe this of the Prime Minister I am well supported by the declaration of the Minister of Public Works. I notice that, with that rugged honesty which we all admire in him, he did not say anything about what had entered his own mind. He went bond for the Prime Minister, but he did not go bond for himself, and it was just himself that we should have liked to hear from. For I want to point out to him in perfect good nature that he is a little suspect in these matters, and naturally he is suspect since his confession in the House that however humble his gifts might be, it would certainly be admitted that he knew something about winning an election. I do not want to probe the matter any further, or to ask whether the idea of a general election ever entered his own mind. I think a great deal of that talk existed purely in the yellow journals of his party. Perhaps they respected my hon. friend on account of this reputation, and perhaps they had regard to the fact that that reputation received a little bit of a shock in Manitoba last summer. I do not know, but I am clear in my own mind that all that talk is mischievous and detrimental to the best interests of the country and of the Empire, and I trust we shall hear no more of it. The very talk of an election is a distraction from the single duty that ought to present itself to every citizen of the British Empire. My hon. friend the Minister of Finance knows that . the business interests of this country do not require an election at the present time, and he ought to have curbed any tendency to issue such literature. I know he knows, because there was a period about a year and a half ago when he read a lecture to my right hon. friend the leader of the Opposition for mentioning the very word gen-

eral election at a time when the business of the country was in such a state that it could not stand a general election. With his long parliamentary experience the Minister of Finance chided my erring and youthful right hon. friend for mentioning such'a matter. Are the affairs of this country better now than they were then? Would the Minister of Finance say so? I think not, and if he would not there is all the more need to repeat the lecture to the people who are responsible for his party's literature last autumn. The fact is that all this talk was most distracting and most hurtful to the common interest. The whole question of defence and of our Imperial connection, the whole question of Canada's future in regard to these questions of peace and war, is necessarily put in the melting pot by the war itself. We shall all of us be wiser to deal with these questions when we have the events of the war fully before us. For this reason alone, all partisan political strife should be laid on one side. Just think of a man talking of a general election who has any common sense of responsibility, and knows anything about our western countfy, who knows what a number of Germans have just come from Germany and settled in the West. The canvassing which would be done among these people in the event of a general election would be most hurtful to this nation and to the interests of the great Empire to which we belong.
I want to quote a single sentence from a speech of the very highest ability -which was made by my hon. friend the Solicitor General before the Canadian Club of Winnipeg the other day, and I think I may leave it as a text not only for every member of this House, but for the thought of every citizen of Canada at this time. In a speech in which the whole question of the war was dealt with in a masterly fashion, and which it was my pleasure to read and to reread, this sentence occurred:
For the balance of our lives the best measure of our worth will be how we behaved in this war.
That is an admirable sentiment, admirably expressed. I could conceive no greater duty than for my young friend, for whom I have the profoundest respect, to take that as a text for his speeches wherever he goes, and as a text for repetition. It is just to the extent we live up to that doctrine that we shall discharge our duties as citizens of the greatest Empire the world has even seen. The people of Canada today know they are living in an Empire of

[DOT]brave men, and they want to be ruled by a brave government. They want to be ruled by a government who sees its one duty and allows nothing to distract it from that duty. We with our Allies have pledged our honour, our blood, and our money to put the expatriated people of Belgium back upon their native soil. We have given pledges and hostages that we shall restore the sacredness of international treaties, that we shall put in honourable position the pledged word of peoples. Is this task not big enough for us? I take it that it is a task worthy of our Empire, and one that will tax all its resources. It is worthy of the Government of this Dominion and of the Dominion itself, and so long as the Government is true to the task it will have the strong and undivided support of hon. gentlemen who sit on .this side of the House.


William Findlay Maclean: I do not know whether a private member should venture into this discussion, especially after the experience I had this afternoon. I was answered almost before I had stated fully the case, and then was sent to the guillotine. But, nevertheless, I do intend to say that it is my purpose, both on my own account and on account of the constituency that I represent, to do anything and everything I can to uphold the hands of the Government in acting on behalf of Canada, while backing up the Mother Country in this great struggle and that we are'prepared to do anything and everything possible to secure, first of all, the rights of ourselves and the rights of the Allies, and then to bring about peace. In that connection I intend to look into the situation from a somewhat different angle, perhaps from the angle ot Canada and the angle of America rather than from the angle from which most of us have been looking at it, and that is the situation in Europe. What is the supreme danger in this situation as far as we as a community on this American continent are concerned ? It is this, that if Germany were to triumph, if we were to neglect our duty or to fail to play our part in this fight, we would be in danger of losing our parliamentary institutions. Just for a moment I want to trace the history of the parliamentary or democratic government that we enjoy in the Mother Country and in America.
Three hundred years ago, almost to this very year, England began to feel the mis-government that came from an irrespon-3
sible and arbitrary sovereign, and while he at first experienced no great trouble resulting from his arbitrary conduct, still the people of England finally rose against him and the movement for responsible parliamentary government was begun. His son lost the confidence of the people of England, and was executed, and on the day that Cromwell came to power parliamentary government was established in England and great progress was made. Then there was a revulsion, a backward movement for a time, but after the interregnum there was an Act passed by Parliament, called the Act of Succession, and the important point about that is that for the first time the King of England was given a parliamentary title to his Crown. Various measures of progress were made in the next and the last century whicli eventuated in this that we bad parliamentary government in which the voice of the people ruled, we had a wider distribution of political authority amongst the constituencies, and up to a short time ago we had almost complete parliamentary government with one thing lacking, and that has been accomplished by this present	parliament in the Mother
Country. Now the House of Commons is supreme and the irresponsible House of Lords lias been made to respect the voice of the people as expressed in the House of Commons. To-day, for the first time in three hundred years, we have absolute and unlimited parliamentary control m the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the people rule.
Gradually that principle has been extended to the Dominions beyond the seas, to Canada, to Australia, and to South Africa. We have now practically a free constitution, free parliamentary government, and the rule of the people prevails in almost all portions of the Empire, certainly within the Dominions, and nowhere in any greater degree than in the Mother Country. All that has taken three hundred years to accomplish, and the final result has only been attained within the life of the present Parliament sitting in Great Britain. We have parliamentary government with a King whose title is from Parliament, from a House of Commons that is directed by the people, by the democracy, and a House of Lords that must bow to the will of the people as expressed in the House of Commons. For the first time in the history of the world full and unlimited parliamentary



government exists in the old land. We have extended that system to the Dominions; we have it here. Perhaps we will have a responsible Senate in this country before long, and when we have we will have complete-parliamentary government in Canada.
Passing from that, I wish to look at this question from the point of view of the American continent. Our neighbours to the south of us, one hundred and fifty years ago almost, began to work out a democratic government or a parliamentary government, in their country, and they succeeded largely in doing so. They have democratic institutions there. They Have a constitution and while it is limited it is based largely on the principle of parliamentary government and of the popular will being carried out. But just to show how it is connected up with this situation, and to make my point clearer, I want to bring the attention of the people of Canada and the United States to the menace that the military system of Germany is to these democratic institutions that we have on this continent, that we have in Canada, and to make my point I am going to read just a few sentences from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg speech delivered in 1863:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
After four score years' experience of democratic government in the United States, Abraham Lincoln said that it was a question whether these institutions could long endure because of the dissension that existed within the Union at that time. If they were in danger then from an internal dissension I say they are in greater danger to-day in view of this, menace from Germany. The last sentence of that speech- and it is the greatest little short political speech in history, it is a classic, it is a cameo in the way in which it is cut-is in these words:
.From these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause, for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
If that menace threatened the great American Republic almost fifty years ago, if government of the people, by the people, 
for the people, was menaced then through internal disorders, much more so is that system of popular government menaced today if the Germans should succeed, be- ' cause they are against government by the people, for the people. They are in favour of a government that is irresponsible. They are in favour of a parliament made up largely of landowners and noblemen not responsible to the people and if Germany should succeed in this attack that she is making on England and the Allies, she intends to turn the world upside down with respect to government, and to substitute an aristocratic government, an irresponsible king and an irresponsible chamber, even though it be called a House of Commons, composed of landowners and the nobility. It is this which not only menaces Europe, but menaces the democracy of the United States; it is one of the menaces that Lincoln foresaw when he made that prophecy in 1863. I avail myself of the opportunity of my position in this House to appeal to those who speak our language, living to the south of us, to remember that they are as much concerned in maintaining democratic institutions and parliamentary government as we are, and that the great menace to them, as well as to us, lies in the military autocracy that the Germans are preaching. I believe it is our duty as public men to point out that the great democratic people of America should be upholding with us the idea of parliamentary government. And, Sir, I appeal not only to the Americans, but even to the German people themselves. They have been threatening since this war began to impose German " Kultur " and the German military system on us. Suppose we meet that by saying: We will try and help to get you free parliamentary institutions; and, if Germany had freo parliamentary institutions and democratic government as we have, there would be no menace such as to-day beclouds the entire world. We ought to try and impress upon these missionaries who are now in the United States preaching the German " Kultur " system, that the only honourable thing for Germany to do is to adopt parliamentary democratic government and abolish the autocratic system. There it is where peace lies, and it is from that angle we should seek for a way to appeal to the great mass of the German people, and to tell them that permanent peace will only come when the parliamentary system prevails in Ger-

many as it does in Great Britain and the United States. That is the duty of the hour; that is the duty of every public man. I regret that we have not made as much as we should have made of that appeal, and I regret also that our friends in the British Parliament have failed to see the great importance of it. There is now opportunity for us all to embark in this missionary work, and to endeavour to educate the Germans along these lines. The speech of my hon. friend from Waterloo (Mr. Weichel) to-day was along that line, and the Germans of the Fatherland must be impressed when they hear the Germans of Canada saying that they value above all things parliamentary government such as we have it in this country. The glory of England to-day is that after a struggle of three hundred years parliamentary government has been established, although it is perhaps right to say that it has only seen its full fruition in very recent years.
I believe that our friends in the United States are sympathetic with us; I believe that the great majority of them are with the Allies, although sometimes people think they should have declared themselves a little more emphatically on this struggle than they have done heretofore. The President of the United States seems to take the position that they should be strictly neutral; but let me point to a certain document, bearing on the his-
9 p.m. toxy of the United States, which I have been reading very carefully of late, and which is interesting in view of the present situation. The most significant thing in this publication of the historical documents of the United States, apart from the Gettysburg speech, is this resolution, which was passed in Congress in 1898:
Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the islanu of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battleship, with two hundred and sixty-six of its officer's ana crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbour of Havana, and can no longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, upon which the action of Congress was invited, therefore,
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, first, that the people of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.
3i	[DOT]
Second, that it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.
Suppose that were paraphrased to read: Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than six months in Belgium have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to civilization and should no longer endure, be it resolved that it is the duty of the United States to demand and it does demand that Germany at once relinquish its government and authority in the Kingdom of Belgium, would not that be a grand stroke for democracy and civilization? I am making no charge against our neighbours to the south of us, and I want specially to avoid that, but I believe, in view of their past record, it would not have been out of place if the American people through their Government had already expressed their dissidence from what is taking place in Belgium, and their condemnation of the abhorrent conditions that have prevailed in that country since the war started. I believe, Sir, before the war is over, the United States will have to join with the Allies, and Canada, and Australia, and South Africa, and the whole English-speaking world, in asserting the principle that whatever is abhorrent to parliamentary government will not be permitted to continue in any country, whether in Europe or America, because of the danger there is in it to free parliamentary institutions.
When I have said that, I have said practically all that I have to say to the House to-night. If we wish to help the cause of peace, if we wish to stop war, to prevent it being again the menace it has been in the past, I believe we must seek to make more prevalent parliamentary institutions and democratic government. The great military systems that have been built up since nations first existed have been built up by autocratic rulers and irresponsible assemblies associated with them. Where there is democratic government, especially where there is parliamentary government in its fullest sense, such military systems are impossible. England is the world's leader in parliamentary government, and there is no menace there to human rights. That is the whole case. We may talk of the war, and of how we are to uphold the men in the trenches-and we must do everything in

that direction that is necessary and in that we shall be supported I am sure by the Canadian people-but to abolish war we must extend democratic and parliamentary government. And we ought to make it clear in some way that we expect that our neighbours to the south will help us in -attaining this end. They did intervene in Cuba, and with good results. They have helped to clean up things in other portions of the American continent, their action being based largely upon. the assertion of democratic government and the rights of the people. And the voice of America is yet to be heard, and will be heard at its loudest and strongest in that direction. And we can appeal also to Germans in the United States, and especially to Germans in our own country, to find a way to convey to the German people the glad tidings of democracy and parliamentary government. And I believe that when the tierman people come to see the mistake of the political system under which they have lived and of following the Kaiser and his irresponsible associates,they will look for the cure in the establishment of complete parliamentary government. I should like to see this phase of the matter discussed in this House with a view to making some impression on the German people in the direction I have indicated.
Now, having made that statement and t.iat appeal with a view to finding a ground upon which the people of America can stand together in upholding free institutions, I only wish to say further that I believe that this House ought to support the Government to the fullest extent in carrying on this war, even to the spending of our last dollar in upholding the cause which we all have at heart. For that cause is the cause of freedom, of Christianity, of humanity, of human uplift. We must be ready to lose everything rather than to lose our self-respect, our belief in our own ideals. And I believe the people of Canada will sustain the Government in everything they shall do in that direction. But, as has been said, we must have careful administration. We do not care what the cost is, but we want absolute efficiency. The country will back up the Government in seeking efficiency, and Canada will give her last dollar and her last man to uphold the cause of parliamentary government and democratic institutions.


Mr. E. M. MACDONALD (Pictou):: Mr. Speaker, I do not rise to continue the debate at length but rather to take advantage of the opportunity afforded under the rules of the House to mention one or two matters that it seems advisable to discuss at this time. I am sure every member of this House has felt more deeply within the last six or seven months the responsibility resting upon him as a representative of the people of this country. That sense of responsibility is deepened by our coming together in this Parliament at this juncture in our history. And I am sure that the addresses of the right hon. gentlemen who lead the two great parties in this House have been of such a character as to appeal to us with especial force at this time.
I desire to thank the right hon. gentleman who leads this House for the kindly reference he has made to the occupant of the vacant seat next to my own, one of my closest friends in the House, the hon. member for Beauce (Mr. Boland). And I am glad to know that while that hon. member has been in communication with some of us, the Prime Minister had him in mind and has been taking steps to relieve him in the position in which he has been placed in Belgium. We have to-day members of this House who are at the front, but there is only one member of the Canadian Parliament who up to this time has been wounded in the cause of liberty. It will be recalled that Dr. Beland quite voluntarily entered upon the service, which came to him in connection with his profession, of treating the wounded in the hospitals in Antwerp. In the course of that occupation he was wounded, but fortunately, not seriously. And while we sit here to-night, calmly and peacefully deliberating on what we should do to play our part in this Empire war, our friend and comrade is in the stricken city of Antwerp, perchance a prisoner of the Germans and in any case in such a position that those of us who have been his friends-and indeed all the members of the House are his friends- realize very seriously indeed, if they have never realized before, how closely this war has come home to us.
In that connection, I am glad that the consensus of opinion in this House to what has been expressed by the right hon. gentlemen who have spoken on either side-that whatever the amount may be that is sought by the Government in order to carry out our re-

sponsibilities to the Empire, that amount will be furnished by this Parliament without regard to party or to any differences of opinion on political matters in Canada. And I was pleased that the Prime Minister very frankly said that the House and the country were entitled to the fullest possible information with regard to the expenditures already made. I should regard it as most unfortunate if anything should occur in the administration of the country's funds in connection with the war which would in any way tend to lower the high ideals which we would like to see maintained by every Canadian from one end of this land to the other. Nothing would so retard the recruiting of men for the war and lessen the enthusiasm of bur people as the knowledge that there was partisanship in the awarding of contracts or improprieties in the purchase of supplies. If Canada has the high ideals on this question which, I am sure, every one of us would like 'to see her entertain, could anything be more debasing, could anything more surely bring down the tone of our people in this serious juncture in our history, than the knowledge that partisanship was dominating the public expenditure instead of the governing motive being the considerations of the country's best interest and our duty to the common cause? I trust that hon. gentlemen on the treasury benches who have the responsibility for this matter will see that its importance is impressed upon the subordinates in the various departments.
My hon. friend and leader referred to the expenses in connection with the purchase of boots for the soldiers, and repeated the assertions which have been made in that regard in the public press of the country. I should like to call my right hon. friend's attention to the circumstances in connection with the purchase of horses. It is asserted broadly throughout the country that horses which were procured in the Maritime provinces and taken to Valeartier were found unsuitable and unfit for service; so much so that many were turned loose in the fields and were not taken on board the vessels and shipped to the other side. If that assertion is true, the country should know of it. As it is, the facts in regard to the purchase of horses and of boots are of the greatest possible, importance, and I trust that the fullest information in regard to them will be brought down. I make this reference not in any partisan sense, but merely for the purpose of calling the attention of the Government to the assertions
which are being made throughout the country in regard-to these matters.
There is another matter to which I wish particularly to call the attention of the Government. In addition to the expenditures which are being made directly by the Government in this country, it is well understood that a very large amount of money is being spent among the various industries of Canada in the purchase of war supplies of different kinds. It is said that these purchases ,are being made under the direction of a special committee of council, under whose control the whole matter is placed. As a matter of fact, large orders for supplies and munitions of war have been given to various industries in Canada and are being manufactured here, and orders amounting to millions of dollars have been placed in the United States. It is well understood that the prices paid for these articles are not parsimonious prices. It is well understood that the Government- whether the home Government or the foreign governments who desired these munitions-have not quibbled about the actual cost of the articles so long as they obtained them. In all contracts let by the Canadian Government for supplies required to be manufactured, there is, under our law, what is known as the " fair wage " clause, which controls the wages paid to the men who construct or manufacture these articles or supplies. But in regard to a great many of the articles which are being manufactured for the old land and for other governments-I refer more particularly to those which have been purchased for the British Government, such as munitions of war-there is a necessity for the Government's taking steps, if the conditions which exist in connection with several industries in the Maritime provinces are any indication of the situation in other portions of the country, to see that the fair wage clause is imposed upon contractors at the time the contracts are let. I should like to call the attention of the House to a resolution which is the basis of what is known as the fair wage clause in Government contracts. It was passed in the year 1900 on the motion of Sir William Mulock, then Postmaster General, and is as follows:
That it be resolved, that all Government contracts should contain such additions as will prevent abuses which may arise from the subletting of such contracts, and that every effort should be made to secure the payment of such wages as are generally accepted as current in each trade for competent workmen in the district where the work is carried out, and that this House cordially concurs in such policy, and

deems it the duty of the Government to take immediate steps to give effect thereto. It is hereby declared that the work to which the foregoing policy shall apply includes not only work undertaken by the Government itself, but also all works aided by grant of Dominion puu-11c funds.
I turn to the report of my hon. friend the Minister of Labour for the year 1914, where I find the following with reference to these contracts:	.
In most of the contracts to which this policy applies, the minimum wage^ rates to be uu-served are specified in the contract. In other cases a general clause Is inserted that all mechanics, labourers, or other persons employed in connection therewith shall be paid ' such wages as are generally accepted as current for competent workmen in the district, and if there is no current rate in the district, then a fair and reasonable rate, and shall not he required to work for longer hours than those fixed by the custom of the trade in the district where tne work is carried on except for the protection of life or property, or in the case of other emergencies. The policy of the Government in respect of the insertion of the fair wage schedule or general fair wages clause is followed in the construction of public works of many different kinds in all parts of Canada, and also in the manufacture of certain classes of Government supplies, the operations covered by this poucy amounting in the aggregate to many millions of dollars.*
Then it goes on to say:
In addition to the preparation of fair wage clauses for Government contracts, the Department of Labour has been called upon to furnish fair wage conditions for insertion in contracts for railway construction to which Parliament has granted financial aid either in the form of subsidy or guarantee. .
So that these contracts for munitions of war and other supplies, if let directly by the Government of Canada, would contain the fair wage clause to which I refer. But it has been said-and this matter has been discussed in the country-that to contracts which have been let not by the Dominion Government directly, but by the committee of Council acting for foreign governments, the fair wage clause does not apply, the contracts not being let directly by the Government of Canada. Having regard to the fact that these are British Government contracts, I wish-to point out in this connection that a resolution was passed on February 13, 1891, in the Imperial House of Commons under which it was provided that the fair wage clause should be included in all their contracts. The resolution was in the following terms:
That in the opinion of this House, it is the duty of the Government, in all government contracts, to make provision against the evils re-

cently disclosed before the Sweating Committee, to insert such conditions as may prevent the abuse arising from sub-letting, and to make every effort to secure the payment of such wages as are generally accepted as current in each trade for competent workmen.
I subrpit, therefore, that it is open to .the Committee of Council or to any other committee appointed by the Government to deal with supplies or munitions required by other governments, and particularly by the Imperial Government, and to insert in each contract a fair wage clause similar to that inserted in Dominion Government contracts, thus protecting the workingmen of Canada at this juncture and securing for them fair hours and reasonable wages.
I do not wish to go into the details of this matter further than to say that cases have come to my knowledge where industries engaged in the manufacture of munitions of war have reduced the wages of their employees as much as twenty-five per cent. This may have been due to other causes arising from tiie depression existing before the war began, but I submit that any contractor carrying out a contract for supplies for the Imperial Government should be asked by council to submit to the same fair wage schedule to which he would be subject if he were working for the Dominion Government.


Robert Laird Borden: To what munitions of war does my hon. friend refer?


Edward Mortimer Macdonald: Shells, more particularly.


Robert Laird Borden: I do not think the Committee of Council deals with that; the matter is controlled by a committee constituted altogether outside this Government, which is acting for the British Government in that respect.


Edward Mortimer Macdonald: That may be so, but it is understood that the principal committee to which 1 refer, that is, the one concerned with the manufacture of shells, was nominated by this Government.


Robert Laird Borden: Nominated, I
think, in the first instance, by the Minister of Militia.


Edward Mortimer Macdonald: I brought the question up for the purpose of asking the Government to see that by either the Committee of Council that is to deal with the matter or by any other committee that has been selected by them to overlook or deal with Imperial contracts, the fair wage clause, which would be

placed in a contract if it were placed by the Imperial Government for work to be constructed in England or by the Canadian Government for work to be constructed in Canada, would be inserted in these contracts for the protection of the employees.


Robert Laird Borden: I am not very
familiar with the work of the committee which consists of a number of business men throughout the country who undertook to ascertain whether or not these articles could be manufactured in Canada; the only way in which the matter has come to my knowledge is that with respect to, I think, one firm representations were made on behalf of labour interests, to the effect that the rate of wage was not quite adequate. I think there are about 60 firms or companies engaged in this work. So far as 1 remember, there were complaints in regard to only one, and that was not in the Maritime provinces. The representations that were received were communicated to the chairman of the committee, and he was asked to give consideration to them and to get into touch with the particular firm or company with reference to which complaint had been made.


Edward Mortimer Macdonald: I am glad to know that my right hon. friend is in a position to deal with these cases when they arise. If a formal request with reference to a particular case is necessary in order to enable my right hon. friend to remove the difficulty, I can supply that by correspondence. My object would be attained if I had assurance from my right hon. friend that he will see that the request I have made in regard to this matter is carried out and the fair wage schedule is observed by those various committees just as if they were contracts with the Federal Government.


Robert Laird Borden: I am not quite sure as to our power to insert the fair wage clause in such contracts; the principals for whom we are acting would have to beacon-suited. Any representations that are made will be given the best consideration in our power.


Edward Mortimer Macdonald: There is a fair wage schedule in regard to Imperial Government contracts, which was, in fact, the basis of the fair wage schedule in Canada; so between the two the. difficulty ought to be avoided, and it ought to be possible to guarantee the employees of these various industries of the country a continuation of their employment at reasonable wages and without an increase in the number of hours.
I was very glad to see, in an address delivered in the Maritime provinces, that my eloquent friend Mr. Rowell, leader of the Opposition in Ontario, whose activity in his public addresses upon the subject of the war has been most worthy of comment and whose ability in dealing with the various phases of this question has been attracting the attention of the Canadian public, -had ventured to say that he hoped that one result of this war in the after days, when the readjustments would necessarily take place and peace would come after victory had perched upon our banners, would be the inclusion of the colony of Newfoundland in the Dominion of Canada. In 1866 and in 1867 the fathers of Confederation saw the importance and desirability of including the. whole of British North America in the federation which was then formed and which has existed without that colony during the ensuing years. The machinery for the inclusion of that colony is provided in the British North America Act. One does not need to enter into a discussion as to why it was never perfected. In 1884 an occasion arose when Newfoundland came to the Government of that day; and I may -say, speaking without any partisanship, that hon. gentlemen on both sides and the press of this country have agreed that it was a most regrettable fact that the Government of that day was so parsimonious in dealing with the older colony that they prevented Newfoundland from entering into Confederation at that time. Conditions, it would seem as days go by, would point to the probability of the whole federation being rounded out within a short time by the inclusion of NSwfoundl-and. When one contemplates the ambitions and ideals of the fathers of this Dominion and when one realizes that this most ancient colony within the Empire is but the outpost of this Dominion, that it stands as a sentry -almost guarding the great St. Lawrence; that here in Canada, in order to ensure safety of navigation on the St. Lawrence in -summer and from Nova Scotia in the winter, we have to maintain in this colony, which has no rights in this Dominion, our life-saving stations -and lighthouses and all the pro visions necessary for safe navigation; that we have there a colony with very great wealth in minerals and timber and fisheries; and that, having regard to that unity and nationality within the Empire which will become all

the more necessary and all the more important when one views the position of this war and its consequences, I would like to impress upon the House and the country the suggestion made by Mr. Rowell, and to say to the Prime Minister that if it is feasible under existing conditions, or conditions which may be imminent within a very short time, to negotiate with that ancient colony, he should not be niggardly in dealing with it; and I am quite sure that those of us on this side of the House would regard my right hon. friend as doing that which was eminently proper and right if he dealt generously-with the people of the colony when an opportunity to bring it into Confederation arose. ' I regard the duty of Canada in that respect as one not merely of importance to Canada as a whole, but of the utmost importance to. the Empire, having regard to its permanence and perpetuity in the days yet to come.


Robert Laird Borden: I wish to make a correction of a statement I made a few moments ago. My hon. friend the Minister of Labour tells me that representations did come to him with respect to one of the firms or companies in the Maritime provinces. I also understand that arrangements are likely to be made for such a clause as my hon. friend alludes to being included in any contract if necessary.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.
Robert Laird Borden: That the said Address be engrossed and presented to His Royal Highness the Governor Genera] by such members of this House as are of the Honourable the Privy Council.


[Stage Direction]
Motion agreed to.

[Stage Direction]
A message from His Royal Highness the Governor General transmitting estimates for the year ending March 31, 1916, was presented by Hon. W. T. White, read by Mr. Speaker to the House, and, on motion of Mr. White, referred to the Committee of Supply.

Hon. W. T. WHITE (Finance Minister):: I beg to announce that it is my intention to bring down the Budget on Thursday. If my right hon. friend desires the adjournment of the debate on that day, we shall be very glad to meet his wishes.


Mr. WILLIAM PUGSLEY:: Matters are evidently going to move pretty rapidly in 
the way of getting into the Estimates, and if my right hon. friend has no objection I should like to have laid on the table of the House before the Estimates are considered the names of the agents or subagents or assistants who have been appointed on the recommendation of this Government or of any minister to make purchases for the British Government of ammunition and other war supplies both in the United States and Canada. If I were to move for this information in the ordinary way, I should probably not get it until too late to be made use of. I have information that agents appeared in the city of New York representing the British and" Canadian Governments-the same gentlemen in each case -and made purchases for the British Government of war supplies in very large quantities, and I think it is highly desirable-that the Government ; should submit the names of the agents. I may also say in this connection that a communication has appeared, emanating ostensibly from the Government, claiming that certain persons falsely represented themselves as agents. The whole matter is one of very considerable interest, and I should be very glad n my hon. friend would consider giving the House the names of these agents without my having to make a motion in the ordinary way.


Robert Laird Borden: I have no recollection of our having appointed agents to purchase for the British Government. So far as I recollect, they appointed their own agents; but I will make inquiries on the subject, and if there are any names to be mentioned I will submit them to the House.


William Pugsley: I shall be very glad if
my right hon. friend will ao so, and I shall bo pleased to give him the information I have on the subject. Certain gentlemen undoubtedly did represent themselves to be agents of the British Government, and the same gentlemen were also agents of the Canadian Government in other purchases, and induced manufacturers to deal with them as representing both the Canadian and the British Governments. I understand that vast quantities of ammunition were purchased through these gentlemen.


Mr. A. K. MACLEAN:: Does the Minister of Finance propose to give shortly a statement of any sums advanced by the

Treasury under the legislation passed in the special session of August, enabling the Government to make advances on securities?


William Thomas White: Under the Finance Act of last session advances may be made to banks on approved security. Is that the legislation my hon. friend refers to?


William Findlay Maclean: Yes.


William Thomas White: I shall consider whether
we shall lay upon the table particulars respecting advances so made to banks, but if my hon. friend would like to inform himself as to the particulars in the meantime, I shall be very glad to give him any information available. What I have in mind was whether I shall bring down full information. I believe it was not done before.


William Findlay Maclean: I would like to inquire further if when thie Minister delivers his financial statement on Thursday, or before that, he proposes to give to Parliament some statement generally, ox with some particularity, showing the war expenditures under the vote of $50,000,000 made last year. I understood the Prime Minister to say this afternoon that he would give Parliament that information, and it will be necessary that we should have it some time soon. Possibly the Minister proposes to make that statement in his Budget. If not, we should have it shortly.


William Thomas White: It is not my intention to give details of war expenditure in the Budget. That would be quite an undertaking, but my right hon. friend the Prime Minister this afternoon promised to bring down the information, as I understood, and no doubt he will have it in charge.


William Findlay Maclean: We would like to know whether the full amount of the $50,000,000 is expended.


Robert Laird Borden: No, the full amount has not been expended, and I may say that further information in regard to it will be laid on the table of the House within a day or two in printed form.
On motion of Sir Robert Borden, the House adjourned at 9.50 p.m.
Tuesday, February 9, 1915.
*