THE CANADIAN SOLUTION OF THE ARMY QUESTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 216, 12 September 1871, Page 2

THE CANADIAN SOLUTION OF THE ARMY QUESTION.

■ (From the Saturday Review.) < While we ia England have been employed in noisily discussing the best deFor remainder of news see Jburth page.

fensive organisation, the Canadians appear to have quietly, and with a minimum both of cost to the country and of hardship to individuals, Bblved the question. Indeed, ■we should say; that, with the exception of Prussia arid Switzerland, Canada is far in advance, as regards defensive organisation, of-' •'every" country in the world. After,, calm consideration and successive elaborations, the following results have been attained. The foundation of the system is the .axiom, that every man owes it to his country to serve in its defence against its enemies. All Britist subjects between the agesof eighteen and sixty — with a few necessary exceptions — are liable to military service. The exception referred to are judges, ministers of religion, professors in colleges or universities, the officials in penitentiaries and public lunatic asylums, persons disabled by infirmity, and the only -son of a widow, being her sole support. Half-pay and retired officers of the regular army and navy, sailors and pilots when employed in their calling, and masters of public schools are enrolled, but are only liable to actual service in case of actual war, invasion, or insurrection. All others are both enrolled, and liable to serve when called upon, and are divided into four classes, which are to be called out successfully as may be necessary. The above four classes, comprising the whole —with mere nominal exceptions — of the adult population of the colony, constitute the .regular or reserve Militia. The total population of the North American Confederation is estimated at about four millions, and the number liable to service at about 675,000 men. For purposes of organisation, the whole country is. divided into nine military districts, which are further subdivided into twenty-two brigade and one hundred and eighty-six regimental divisions, which latter are again divided into company divisions. The Minister of Militia and Defence is at the head of the whole organisation, and is assisted by a chief executive officer styled the adjutantgeneral, who has under him at headquarters a deputy. The Militia of each district is under the command of a deputy adjutant-general, and in each brigade division there is a brigade major, who seems, however, to be simply a staff officer, and to exercise no actual command. To each regimental division are assigned a lieutenant colonel and two majors, and to each company division a captain and two subalterns. The regimental and company correspond as closely as 1 possible to electoral and municipal divisions. The regimental officers attached to the Reserve Militia reside in their respective districts, and are appointed principally for purposes of enrolment and ballotj consequently, the recruiting and organising staff would not be, as would be the case with us, dislocated in the event of an invasion, but a continual flow of recruits to the active army could be kept up. The organisation we have described, except as regards deputy adjutant-generals and, to a certain extent, brigade majors, is essentially of a reserve character, and simply provides for the immediate carrying out of any measures deemed necessary "without imposing any actual duty in time of peace. In England, on the contrary, the organisation for the ballot is not to be commenced until the emergency arises. We now come to the actual army of Canada, or, as it is termed, the Active Militia. At present this consists entirely of corps raised by voluntary enlistment, and numbers on paper 44,519 men, or 1 in 15 of all men liable to serve, and 1 in 100 of the population. The different arms of the service are thus represented :-— • Cavalry, 1,666, chiefly organised in isolated squadrons and troops ; 10 field batteries with 42 guns, 441 horses, and 750 men ; garrison artillery, 4,108 men j 4 companies of engineers, 232 men ; 3 marine companies, 174 men ; and 73 battalions of infantry numbering 36,729 men, and 2 battalions for service in the Bed River District, 862 men. In addition to ,the above, twenty-five new corps are in process of formation. When organised, they will,, raise the strength of the Active Militia to 45,040 men. According to the militia law of the Dominion, it is only required that the Active Militia should amount to 40,000 men, furnished in due proportion by the different districts, and to be raised by ballot if necessary. Hitherto there has been no necessity to have recourse to the ballot ; ■{ there is, however, a growing feeling in the Dominion that voluntary enlistment involves undue Hardship , on individuals, and it seems probable that the ballot will. ere long be brought into operation. 'At present, volunteers enlist for three years, but according ' to ibe la w, men obtaineOy' ballot would serve only two years. Atfthe end of their service; in the Active Militia the men who compose it re- ' enter Uhel Reserve, and- are "not liable, to^becalled put until all other men in the same company division have volunteered or been i'batlipi^^.to/f^^y.V^The.'-nuniDißr of men called;out;ifetira}njing each year;i«4o;QOO, ■^^/^w^j^i'Af^.^^^^^. sixteen,

during which time the. men receive pay. A sjstem of assembling the troops in each brigade in camp3 for the purposelpfjyjnual training has also been introduced, with the 1 best possible results, and the practice is likely to be extended. During the time that the Militia is embodied it is L subject to the ; Queen's Regulations and the ArticWof War, and, as a matter- of , fact, discipline seems to be thoroughly maintained. Kifie practice by companies is sedulously practised, and skill in the use of the rifle is encouraged by the bestowal of prizes at the annual training. The great assimilation, to the customs and practices of regular troops is remarkable even in social and ornamental details. Many battalions are with colors and bands, and during the annual training the officers generally mess together. A very sensible arrangement, tending both to increase a military feeling and to create an impression on the enemy, is the supplying the infantry with .uniforms similar to that worn by the Imperial, army i It may here be remarked thai; .the men of the Canadian Active Military are iar taller and larger than the soldiers of our regular regiments. As regards both combatant and non-combatant staff, no efforts have been spared to render the local army efficient,-and a still greater imptovemenfc is to be looked for shortly. It is proposed that the Adjutant-General of the Militia should be styled in future Major-General Commanding the Militia ; that his staffofficer — the present Deputy- AdjutantGeneral at Head-quarters — should be termed Adjutant- General^ and receive the rank of Colonel; that the Deputy Ad-jutant-Generals -who -command districts should receive the title of' Colonel on the staff, and that all staff officers should in future, before appointment, pass "a. special examination, and only hold their offices for five years, and not be eligible for reappointment in the same office. ; With a view to obtaining properly qualified officers for the staff, it is recommended that a Canadian Staff College should be established; and in order to obtain competent instructors for it, the suggestion is made that the Imperial Government.be asked to allow a certain number of Canadian officers to join the Staff College at Sandhurst. But the Canadian authorities have already taken practical steps to - secure a good professional training for their officers, by the institution of schools of instruction, in which measure they were far in advance of Mr. Cardwell. These schools of instruction were first established Jn ,1864, and already nearly 6000 young men have passed through them. Some of: the graduates now hold "commissions in the Active Militia, while others will be- provided for. as vacancies occur, and on an 1 increase to the Active Militia being required, would furnish an ample supply of well-qualified, officers. Moreover the boys in most large schools; undergo elementary drill. /Thus it will be seen, that a large proportion of males of : all ages from ten to sixty receive a certain amount .— rin some cases [a, very considerable amount— of military training, and that, if the ballot is enforced!, there will in course of time be probably about half a million of men moire or less trained to | arms. -have r shown . that the combatant and .recruiting '-staff is- completely organised, and , cqnsiderable attention is now being paid to the administrative staff or store department, and arrangement have been made for a due supply of all the arms, camp equipage, and: other, stores required for field service or camps of instruction. ~We might •■ describe the details of Canadian military organisation at much greater length, but we have approached the limits of our space. We cannot, however, refrain from citing one instance in which the system was tested, and, which showed that the Dominion possessed something more than a mere paper organisation. ;, On one ocdasion, wi th In twentyfour hours 14,000 men were assembled .at. corps head-quarters and ready td take the ; field. This occurred in. 1866, when at--4 p.m., on the 7th of March, the AdjutantGeneral; then ob his Hvay by railway from Ottawa to Montreal, received a telegram ordering him to assemble 10,000 men tp-resistai-Fenian raid. '-By 4 jhni; on the Bth it was notified to the A dju tan t- General that not 10,000 but" : 14,0001 iheni. were L assembled at their respective head-quarters awaiting further; orders. 1 ' ; These orders were sent, and by the afternoon of the 10th this foiiee JdW fdistribiited i and posted, i On eacH subsequent occasion on which the Militia have been called out the same alacrity has Been "dispTayedT Some of the men had to. travel cot lees than twenty^mtjes to, jpbe^ |he lammons.lto proceed .to"J>ajjtali^nJ[ hejajl-qujirters, ,&4.d * frequently iarge~numbers of Canadians in the i.TTftited- Stfttes[bjy;eiyjC|tqnWerea;tojoin:: ''the Militia on emergency. It is calculated that within afewdaysSOJQOO^mßnjCpuiajhe^ assembled on the American frontier;* -^ Korean the Canadian army— -for ( army it. is, and not a mereXoggyegat^ of ' unbrgft ! nifle f d i and unconnected tactical units like our

Volunteers and Militia — boast merely of the loyalty and alacrity of the men and the excellence of the officers; bjut most of the v corps exhibit, according to the reports o(~ the experienced inspecting officers, a remarkable degree of military proficiency. The annual inspections are by no means perfunctory or mere complimentary ceremonies; no time is wasted in parade manoeuvres, but every minute of the inspections is devoted to ascertaining the real condition of the corps, all.'.shortcomings being most fearlessly reported on. With such numbers, such, physique, such officers, such training, and such organisation, Canada counts for much as an element of the military strength 1 of the Empire, and mnst, we should think, definitely put an end to. all fear of a sudden annexation by the United States. Mr. Cardwell may learn many valuable. lessons regarding military organisation if he can spare a single evening to read the last few Militia, reports of the gallant young Dominion,' and no political economist can now pretend that Canada - is a source of weakness to the British Empire.