DEFENCE IN CANADA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 85, 10 December 1913, Page 4

DEFENCE IN CANADA.

The report of the Inspector General of the Oversea Fences, General Sir lan Hamilton, on the military institutions of Canada, has been issued by the Canadian Minister of Defence, Colonel S. Hughes. Canada possesses a small permanent force of professional soldiers corresponding to the regular army at home, as well as a volunteer citizen Force styled the Active Militia, which is similar in essentials to the:

Territorial Force. 1 nder the Militia Acts of both countries the whole manhood of the nation is theoretically available for military service. In t anada these potential but hitherto unorganised soldiers, nearly a million in number, form the Reserve Militia. Sir Inn Hamilton, while recognising

the importance of home defence, lays much stress on the necessity for Imperial co-operation, and exhorts the Canadians not to neglect their small permanent force; he urges its complete assimilation to the Imperial pattern, so as to render possible in the near future an interchange of British and Canadian units for Imperial work. “The presence of a Canadian regiment in London, Delhi, or Cairo (.he says) would stir the imagination not only of tin* five nations themselves, but of the whole outside world. 1 lie proposal which will probably excite most interest on both sides of the Atlantic is that dealing with the Reserve Militia. Canada is invited not only to improve her active militia, but also to set about giving her reserve militia some sort of elementary organisation. The preparation, in peace, of muster rolls of the men actually liable for military service is strongly advocated, and it is urged that the military authorities should base the organisation of the Reserve Alilitia on these rolls. Sir lan Hamilton does not consider universal manhoofl train-

ing in peace to be necessary in Can-

ada, but he insists strongly on the expediency of developing the training of boys to arms.