to the Front: CANADA AND THE WAR-THE FRONT There was an immense amount of Canadian warOn the Way work done in England during these years; large financial and commercial transactions were carried on between the Governments concerned through the office of Sir George Perley; much military training was done, large camps maintained, many hospitals looked after in Great Britain and at the Western and other Fronts; centres for Red Cross and every form of patriotic work which women could undertake were maintained; London was the essential pivot upon which turned the final efficiency and force of Canada's war-effort as it passed from the fulcrum into France. Under the supervision of Sir George Perley as Acting, and finally as permanent High Commissioner for Canada, and since late in 1916 Minister of Overseas Forces, a multitude of matters were dealt with and, at the beginning of 1917, he had the following additional Canadian officials: Special Agent of the Minister and Depart- General Officer Commanding Canadian Acting Overseas Deputy for Minister of Adjutant-General. Director of Personal Services. Maj.-Gen. John W. Carson, C. B. Maj.-Gen. R. E. W. Turner, c. B., v.C., D.S.O. Brig.-Gen. Alexander D. McRae. Chief Paymaster and Officer of Records.. Lieut.-Col. J. G. Ross. One Sir George Perley in his public utterances during this year struck a high note of sane Imperialism. In the Empire number of the Manchester Guardian (Mar. 20) he expressed these views: "It must always be the desire of a virile people to attain a full measure of self-government. This necessitates a change in the present British system, so that the Dominions may have a real voice in peace and war and all matters of common concern. can justify our sacrifices in this struggle, but it would be impossible to argue that we can regularly and permanently assist in the Empire's wars unless we have something to say as to their declaration and management.' " In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Confederation the Royal Colonial Institute presented an illuminated Address to Sir George Perley, describing Canada as "the pioneer, overseas, in self-government, federation, and nationhood; the possessor of a rich and storied past, of a present made glorious by Canadian prowess and sacrifice, of a future boundless as the wheatgrowing lands of the North-West." To the Montreal Star on Aug. 4th he issued a message declaring that: “Our history as a nation will be recorded as starting from this war, our troops having made a name for themselves second to none. They have shown that a citizen army, inspired by love of liberty, is a match for the besttrained troops of Germany." During a discussion in the Commons at Ottawa on Aug. 7 it transpired that during these war-years, while Sir George Perley had been acting as High Commissioner and practically as Overseas Minister of Militia, he had declined any remuneration for his services and so also for his varied administrative duties at Ottawa between 1911 and 1914. So, it may be added, with F. B. McCurdy, Parliamentary Secretary of the Militia Department. In the debates which followed, notably on Aug. 13, Liberal speakers deprecated Sir George Perley's control of military affairs and opposed the creation of a Minister of Overseas Military Forces which the Government put through Parliament at this time. Sir Robert Borden, on the latter date, explained that the Order-inCouncil of October, 1916, had provided for the position; this present legislation attached a salary to it. He explained that Sir George had assumed its duties at the Premier's urgent request; so far as purely military matters were concerned he acted by the advice of General Turner. The powers of the Minister were defined by the Premier and may be condensed as follows: 1. He was charged with the control of and was responsible for the administration of the affairs of the military forces of Canada in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe; the ordnance, arms, ammunition, armouries, stores, munitions and habiliments of war belonging to Canada in those countries; all expenditure incurred in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe for or in respect of these Forces. 2. He was given power in urgent matters to act provisionally without reference to the Canadian Government. 3. He was charged with the negotiations on the part of the Government of Canada with His Majesty's Government, in all matters connected with the government, command and disposition of the Overseas forces of Canada and arrangements for co-ordinating their operations and services with those of His Majesty's troops. 4. He was given power to appoint and pay the necessary officers and clerks and to create an Advisory Council. As the year progressed Sir George organized his Department so that Civil matters came to him and military matters were largely dealt with by Gen. Turner; Lieut.-Col. Walter Gow of Toronto was appointed Deputy Minister. In the middle of the year Sir Richard Turner he had received a K.C.M.G. from the King-was administering the military affairs in England through four Branches: (1) that of the Assistant Military Secretary in charge of Major F. F. Montague; (2) that of the General Staff in charge of Lieut.-Col. H. F. McDonald, C.M.G., D.S.O., (3) that of the Adjutant-General in charge of Brig.-Gen. P. E. Thacker, C.B., C.M.G.; that of the Quartermaster General in charge of Brig.-Gen. A. D. McRae, C.B. General Carson, had early in the year, retired from his position. In August Sir George Perley visited the Canadian troops at the Front and afterwards described the appointment of General Currie to the command as most popular, the spirit of the soldiers as wonderful, the work of the Railway and Forestry Corps as most valuable, that of the Canadian hospitals as splendid. In October, upon finally accepting office as High Commissioner, Sir G. Perley resigned his seat for Argenteuil, Que., and at the same time Sir Edward Kemp gave up his Ministry of Militia to accept the post of Minister Overseas. On Dec. 20 it was announced that the High Commissioner had handed over a bronze gun captured by the 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion to the British authorities for the manufacture of future Victoria Crosses; at Christmas time he issued a message of congratulation to Canadians on the honour won by their troops during 1917. During the year Sir George had joined the Imperial War Graves Commission, headed by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, which included the Earl of Derby, K.G., as Chairman of Committee, and all the Dominion High Commissioners as members and had for its object a mission declared by the Imperial Conference to be a sacred obligation resting on the whole Empire-the maintenance of the burial places of its soldiers and sailors. He organized a Committee to deal with the transport of Canadian troops and their dependants after the War, and including H. A. Allan, J. H. Plummer, Brig.-Gen. St. Pierre Hughes, Lieut.-Col. J. H. D. Hulme and others; in July a Military Mission was appointed to visit and spend 3 months in France, attached to the Ministry of War, and consisting of Brig.-Gen. Lord Brooke, Major G. R. Geary (Toronto), Major Asselin (Montreal), and Capt. Joly de Lotbinière; another Mission, appointed by the Canadian Government, however, was that of the Canadian War Archives Society composed of (Hon.) Lieut.-Col. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion Archivist, Lieut.-Col. Wm. Wood of Quebec and Capt. Gustave Lanctot "to make a survey of all the war activities of Canada, with a view to obtaining a complete and comprehensive key to all classes of public war records." Meantime the Canadian War Records Office had been doing good work since its establishment in 1916 by Sir W. Max Aitken with a grant of $25,000 from Ottawa; the aid of Lieut.-Col. R. Manley Sims, D.S.O., Major C. G. D. Roberts and Capt. Holt White had been effective in collating data for the permanent history of Canada's forces in the field. This office and work had nothing to do with the Canadian Records Office which dealt with the details of casualties, sickness and individual incidents in the Army. Sir Max Aitken, though giving up "Eye-Witness" work during this year, retained his interest in the Records and became Lord Beaverbrook as a result of participation in British politics. His services to Canada as its Record Officer since 1915, and as Officer in charge of the War Records Office since January, 1916, were given without remuneration. His duties were, by means of daily cables, to give to the Canadian public an account of the performances of the Canadian troops and in this capacity he wrote the two volumes of Canada in Flanders. He also looked after the collection, fyling, copying, collation and safe-keeping of the enormous quantity of official records, maps, diaries, précis and private accounts relating to the operations and activities of the Canadian troops. It may be added that on Feb. 21 Lord Beaverbrook was given a Dinner and presentation of plate by 50 leading politicians-amongst them Mr. Bonar Law, Rt. Hon. Neil Primrose, Sir F. E. Smith, Tim Healy, Rudyard Kipling, and Lord Rothermere. The Canadian Army Dental Corps was established in 1917 with Col. J. A. Armstrong (Ottawa) as Director of Dental Services, though in preliminary work and organization it had already done much and performed 300,000 operations. Meanwhile, arrangements had been evolved and completed in 1917 for the handling of the large sums-ranging up into the hundreds of millions-required to pay expenses of troops in England and at the Front. Sir Robert Borden in the Commons on Feb. 1, 1917, gave a statement in this regard which may be summarized briefly: 1. Canada, Australia and New Zealand, at the outbreak of war signified a desire to bear the whole cost of their Expeditionary Forces and have since made their own issues of pay, cash allowances and pensions. 2. The expenses borne in the first instance by the Imperial Government for Canadian troops in England (rations, forage, clothing, stores, etc.) are recovered currently through the ordinary medium of accounts. 3. As to expenses in the Field it is not practicable to keep account of actual issues and it is the intention of the Imperial Government (subject to the concurrence of the Dominion Government) that payment should take some simple form such as an estimated rate per head. 4. There are no accounts which show the cost of supplies and services to Canadian troops in France and the figures can only be arrived at by estimate. Leaving munitions aside the rate of expenditure per head of the Army as a whole (excluding Indian troops) is about 9s. 6d. per day. Of this sum about 4s. represents pay, cash allowances and pensions, the charges corresponding to which in the case of Canadian troops are paid by Canada direct; remounts, for which it was found possible to make a separate settlement on the basis of actual transactions; and mechanical transport vehicles. The remaining 5s. 6d. includes a certain number of large items supplied by the War Office such as rations, forage, fuel, clothing, equipment and general stores, drugs, stationery, and accounts for a total of 4s. per day. 5. The total estimate (April, 1916) was 6s. per day per man which is considered reasonable. On Feb. 17 it was announced from Ottawa that the forces in England had been re-organized with 26 reserve Battalions arranged according to Provinces and acting as re-inforcements for Battalions at the Front coming from the same Province or, where possible, locally. A question greatly discussed during the year-especially in women's organizations and social reform bodies-was the moral condition of the Canadian soldiers in England. Much of the talk, some of the Resolutions, many of the speeches, were very wide of the mark. War psychology breeds an infinite brood of rumours, and includes depressed views of social and public conditions, with an almost morbid willingness to believe the worst. This moral issue also furnished a ready field for exaggeration in the interest of Prohibition advocacy. At the Ontario Prohibition Convention of Mar. 8 statements absolutely vitriolic in character were made, the British Government was freely condemned with little visible reason or proof for conditions guessed at, or rumoured, or asserted in private correspondence, and more than one woman urged that no more men be allowed to go across. The Rev. E. Tennyson Smith, a veteran English reformer, protested strongly: "To suggest for one moment that the British Government connives at the existence of immoral conditions is absolutely untrue and unfair. Your boys will have no greater temptation or even as great temptation in England as here, for anything worse than the streets of Montreal I have never known. It is entirely untrue that the British Government permits or even winks at immorality." On motion of Mrs. Thornley of the W.C.T.U. a Resolution was passed declaring that the Convention "views with extreme regret and genuine concern the use of the wet canteen, the rum ration and the permission (afterwards changed |