The Portland daily press., 1889-10-02
OUR wARlIkE FRIENDS OVER THE LINE
Canada wants Credit for Every Sol
der In Her Army.
por,,,on military Circles Agitated
by some current Reports.
The news of the Day In the City by
the Potomac.

WASHINGTON. October There is some
,h;ng amusing in the indignation with which
an Ottawa paper, arguing the Behring Sea
ouastion takes to task Sir A. P. Caron for
.snublisbine to the world official reports
showing the militia force TO be In demoral-
lied condition" Oar government will settle
the seal fishing controversy with Great Bril-
tain. not with Canada, and the strength or
weakness of the latter's citizen soldiery will
have no bearing on the solution. Capt.
Shepard. of the Rush, will not sleep the
sounder for knowing that while the aggre-
gate of the Dominion military force is 81, ,474,
of this array British Columbia possesses on
ly 270. Nor will Secretary Window pluck up
poachers of Victoria on learning that the
arms ana accoutrements of the Canadian
militia are much behind the times.
The truth is that the organized militia
force of the Dominion Is not numerically
weak compared with our own. The. popula-
the annual statistical Record, issued by
the government, of which the last number
appeared about two months ago, is 4.972. l0l,
or about one-twelfth ss large as our own,
while the organized militia at 1884, Is about
one-third as large as ours. 1t IS also, pro
artillery, this arm, including field and garri.
son artillery, numbering 1902. against 81 ,5Ot
infantry, 1887 cavalry, and 179 engineers
The main part Of the force Is, OF course, to
be found In Ontario and Quebec. these two
provinces having respectively 1895 and II, >
600 men. Nova Scotia comes next, with
3,646; then New Brunswick, with 2, 461 Man.
itoba, with SIG; Prince Edward Island, with
GIT; British Columbia, with 30; the military
schools, with 1,079. In another classification
the cities. including the military schools
have Il, ,134 men, generally we'll drilled, while
the rural districts have 20,340, who could be
assembled only after some delay. Canada Is
divided into twelve military districts, which
are sub-divided into brigade and smaller
areas.
The revelation of weakness In the reports
of subordinates published by the minister Of
militia relates mainly to shortcomings In
arms, equipments and in drill. There are
many good riflemen among the troops, as the
bled0n every year attest These and other
good shots and some organizations have the
Martini rifle. But most of them have the old
Snider, which has been superseded in Eng
land Several officers report that they found
the rifles in their commands mostly unser
viceable. Many reported that the arms had
been neglected and were rusty. In several
instances, also, the ammunition was found
to be In bad condition. Very often, in the
rural districts, it was found that the men
had not been instructed in target firing.
Still, with all these drawbacks, the Domin
ion militia has many efficient regiments,
companies, and batteries, and the promptness
with which they turned out during the RE
insurrection in 1885 was to their credit. The
frank disclosure of the present deficiencies
is the first step toward repairing them.