The weekly soliphone., 1916-12-01
CANADA IN WAR TIME.
(By Frederic J. Haskin)

one of the most fortunate periods of it's existence Not only have the making of munitions and all other sup pleS and the boom in paper stimulated business but un- til few weeks ago. the largest concentration camp n the Dominion, shelterng 30000 men, was located only sixteen miles away and drew it's slstenance from this city As result of these things factories here rum nlng night and day. train service has been almost doubled, artisans are getting 100 per cent than they were two years ago. and there is money ill the old province than ever before.
 lnduStrally, the war has been fat catch for the Quebec habitant, and emOtionaly it has left him undis turbed. This of course is the general statement Some l4OOO French Canadians have gone to war and these have made splendid records while the "od country bon and the nativebom of English descent have been as prompt to volunteer here anywhere else. But the fact remains that less than nnetenths of per cent of the Quebec French have enlisted
 At present recruiting campaign to raise 300 men in three weeks is going forward in the city Recruiting officers walk the streets buttonhong men, urging them to enlist, the ground that this is much Quebecs fight anyoncs; that Germany would invade Canda if she could. But there is not much response The re- cI1itinG offices have everything they need except cruits. There recruiting posters in all the store win doWs and on all the walls. "JOn Kcheners own" they urge in French and English. Joffre says Send more of those Quebec boys Don't make reason out of an ex- cuse!'
 Nobody is seen reading these posters except the cu- rous stranger The habitant offers neither reason nor an excuse. He simply feels urge to go.
 There various reasons back of this apathy, but the nb of them all is that the FrenchCanadian habtant is without deepy-fet allegiance to any soil but that of Quebec which has been his home and that of his forebear for two centuries He does not love the France of the odme religious persecution, for his fore fathers felt the weight of them. Neither does he love EngIandtIe country that in Ontario is trying to take away the bjrthipht Of his mother tongue. The Cana dian nationalist party which is small but has eloquent co1,, f,ut0l oOt bees war.
 Again, the habitant is home-loving body. In his parish he has lived all of his days the parish is his great man. the rest of the world is vagQH and concern of hs You must get outside of Quebec to realize this
 life of the habt,nt Along the St. Lawrence you ride through a land where time has worked few changes. The farms reach fro nhe river back to the forest in row strips as they parceled out centuries ago. and beyond them a nothing but the purple wilderness of the larentians The habtant is satisfied with his little strip of soi though virgin empire is at his back door. He still works with the tools and methods of his fOrefath CTS, and drives to town in tiny cart pulled by dog Everywhere are churches imagnes of the virgin and of Christ Way8de smines-the evidences of a devout un- questioning faith About every house swarm children Fifteen is only a moderatesized family in Quebec. So Pierre the habitant is poor, contented of large family responsibilities Urged neither by conscience nor by love of avcntche two great forces that drive men to Nart is wonder that he does not lenlist Fl
 Neither is it remarkable that this spectatle of Que bee apahctc and fattenng on the opportunities of war; awakens resentement and hatred among the fight ing men of Canada.
 "This province is no good" says the recruiting of ficer in deep disgust.
 At the discharge depot here today young cap tain from British Columbia, who had gone with the First division served ten months in the trenches, and come back to recover from nervous breakdown. His battalion was among those that felt the first shock off the Onushing Germans, tasted the first of gas, went down in wndrows nearly all from his own town. Six hundred and fifty of them fell in the first three days on French soil The battalion had been recruited again and again. It had literally been eXterminated several times Two hundred and seventyfive of it's officers had been killed though there had been more than