The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-05

says he naturally takes a great interest Tn all such matters. Asked as to wheth- CT he intended to make any report on his return to England of his impress slons, he said that 1t would, of course, be quite natural for him, as military man, to be asked questions, and as na- tural for hlm to answer them. Lord Chelmsford is well known In the mill- tary world. He commanded the British forces in South Africa in 1878 and 1879, and served in the Crinean war, the In- alan mutlny and the Abyssinian and Zulu wars. In fighting the 2ulus and Kafiirs he won fame which has not been forgotten. While his lordship has pass ed his 10th year, he is still wonderfully well preserved and vigorous. In stature he is tall, straight as an arrow, and thin and wiry, his military training be- ing evident in every movement. He Is a son of the first Baron Chelmsford, and | from 1884 to 1883 was lieutenant of the | Tower of London. His brother Is Lieu 1 tenant General Thesiger, who was in the | Chinese campaign of 1S60, and was pre- l sent at the capture of Pekin. Lord Chelmsford arrived in New York last
 week from London, and after spending a few days in the American commercial
 metropolis and visiting West Point, he came to Montreal.
 When seen at the Windsor he talked
 quite readily and most interestingly on | the subject of his visit to Canada. "Of course the probability of a war between | Great Britain and the United States is, 1 perhaps not very great" he said to the i reporter, but there is always the pos | sibility. We have had several illustra-
 tions of that fact of late, when 1t seem | ed that not much was wanted to preclpi- | tate struggle between the two coun- tries. l was curious, on my own per
 soral score, to see how Canada would be prepared to meet an invasion, and so
 am informing myself as much as possi-
 ble as to your resources and as to the
 physical conditions of the country
 Do you not think 1t probable that the
 United States, with it's great popula-
 ton, would be able to pour its troops in
 overwhelming numbers into Canada i'm mediately on the declaration of war,
 and overrun the country before the
 mother country could, come to the help | of her colony?" t1f
 | NO; I do not think that could be done Of course it would depend very largely upon the Canadians themselves. 1 Every mothers son of them would have
 to throw down his pen or his shovel, or whatever else he yrnight have in his hand, and grasp the sword or the mus
 ket. Canada would have to mass her forces at the crucial points along the
 border, especially along the Niagara | frontier and the Welland canal, for the
 latter must be preserved at all hazards | One thing that I believe would help Canada to repel the first invasion of her l territory, or, at any rate, keep 1t back l till assistance would arrive from Eng land. would be the fact that the war 1 would not be popular in the United | States There would always, I believe, | be a division of sentiment i'll the United
 States as tothe justification of any war l that might spring up between Britain
 and America, and this division of senti-
 ment would result in a lack of enthusi- asm, and the consequent unenthusiastic
 prosecution of the campaign, the same
 as in the war of 1912. It would be an easy enough matter for the United I States to pour It's troops into the Can
 adian northwest. but the possession Of
 that part of the Dominion would be of
 no military advantage to it whatever.
 The struggle would be all east of De- troit and mostly on the Niagara from
 tier and in the valley of the Richeleu,
 in the eastern townships
 The defense of the Canadian frontier
 east of Montreal, Lord Chelmsford be- lieves, would be an easy matter. The
 St. Lawrence river as far as Montreal is navigable for battleships with a draught of 22 feet, even at lowest water, 1 and England, with her superior navy,
 would be able to patrol the river with e f1et that would make navigation impes-
 sible. Tn this connection his lordship
 referred to the fact that the British
 North American squadron is now very formidable with additions made
 during the past eighteen months
 The squadron consists of the
 powerful battleship Renown, in some
 respects the greatest hattleshp in the
 royal navy and the fastest afloat; the l cruisers Crescent Cordela, Indefatig-
 able, Intrepid, Mohawk. Pallas, Talbot and Tartar, all first4cass, modern built
 vessels: the sleeps Busrad and Pelican | and the gunboat Partridge. This fleet
 would lose no time in patroling the | iOWeF St' LdWleiiCS, anu II "ouiu oi'iJ | be matter of a few days when they | would be joined by a score of others de- tached from the Mediterranean and 1 Channel squadrons. The Canadian
 frontier below Montreal being thus pro-
 vided for, Lord Chelmford said that the
 English admiralty would undoubtedly
 dispatch large numbers of light-draught gunboats to perform a similar service
 between Montreal and Detroit. The
 passage of these boats up the river
 would he said, not be specially difficult
 provided always that the Welland canal
 had been safely held. The St. Lawrence
 was a good, wide river, and he did not
 think that any land batteries that the
 Americans might be able to erect along