SIR ROBERT LAIRD BORDEN

THE VOICE OF THE EMPIRE

From the opening of the War Great Britain received the enthusiastic support of the Over-Seas Dominions. The troops from Canada, Australia and New Zealand played a large part in winning the War. In this speech the Premier of Canada gives some description of the service and the loyalty rendered by the Dominions. The speech was made in seconding the resolution of Mr. Balfour, at great patriotic meeting held in the London Opera House, August 4th, 1915, the first anniversary of the outbreak of the War.

The Right Honorable Sir Robert Laird Borden was born at Grand Pré in 1854; was called to the bar in 1878, and became Queen's Council in 1891. He was elected leader of the Conservative party in the Canadian House of Commons in 1901 and became Premier of Canada in 1911, a position which he held throughout the World War. Other speeches by Sir Robert Borden are printed in Volumes I and VIII.

I BELIEVE that in Japan the Constitution recognizes great men, men with distinguished services to the State, men of great experience, men of high ability, men of acknowledged unwavering patriotism, to whom the title of Elder Statesmen is given. You have not in these islands any Constitutional recognition of such men, but there are those among you who have that status, and among those stands prominent the great statesman to whose inspiring words we have listened to-night. We of the Overseas Dominions may perhaps be allowed to term ourselves the younger statesmen, and as one of those I have the honor and privilege of seconding the resolution which Mr. Balfour has just moved.

Considering all the events of the year, there are indeed some matters on which we have the right and privilege to-night of congratulating ourselves to the full. Was the unity of this Empire ever so strikingly made manifest before? Was it ever

more clearly demonstrated that the race which inhabits these islands and the Overseas Dominions is not a decadent race? What has been the result of the call of duty to this Empire? You in these islands debated years ago, and not so long ago for that matter, as to whether in case of necessity you could send abroad an Expeditionary Force of 80,000 or 120,000 or 160,000 men, and if I am not mistaken the most optimistic among you believed that 160,000 men was the limit. What has been the result of the call? You have in part organized, and you are now organizing, armies from ten to twenty times greater than those which were the limit you set for yourselves in the past. That is not an indication of a decadent race, and I am glad indeed to know that we in the Overseas Dominions as well are doing our part as best we can. Indeed in Canada, and I believe the same is true in all the Overseas Dominions, the difficulty has been with armament and equipment, all that is necessary for the organization of a great modern army, and not with the provision of men, for the men came faster than we were able to organize the armor to equip them. And so it has been in India as well. I remember having in the early months of the war the privilege of reading a debate which took place in the Council of India, a great debate which was worthy of the Mother of Parliaments herself; a debate couched in language of the most intense patriotism; and in that debate the demand of India was that she should be permitted to do her part in this war. The same is true of Egypt and all the Crown Colonies. From East to West, from North to South, throughout the Empire, the response on all hands has been more than we could have ventured to anticipate.

Mr. Balfour has referred in the most eloquent and appropriate terms to the work of the great Navy which is under his direction, and which has accomplished its task so wonderfully ever since the war broke out. We of the Overseas Dominions realize as much as you realize that the pathways of the seas are the veins and arteries of this Empire through which its life blood must flow. If these are once stopped or interfered with in any way the Empire cannot continue to exist. We are as conscious as you are conscious of the wonderful vigil in the North Sea and of the patience, endurance, and

fortitude of officers and men. We are grateful as you are grateful, with the most intense appreciation of all they have done for us, and, more than all, the fact that they have rid the seas of the marauders by which our commerce was troubled has enabled us to keep in close contact with you and keep up that intercourse which is so absolutely necessary for you and for us, not only in war but in peace as well.

I have no military knowledge nor experience-I am going to say a word with regard to military affairs in a momentbut before doing that I would like to express my own appreciation, and I think of all the people in the Dominion which I have the honor to represent, of the splendid work which has been done by the Royal Flying Corps in this war. Knowing the great efforts that have been made by other nations in this particular branch of the military and naval services, we were rather inclined to anticipate and expect that it might not be up to the highest standard of the great nations of the world. I have good reason to know, because I have had some intimate accounts of what has transpired at the front-I have good reason to know that the work of our aeroplane service has been equal to the best, and that in initiative, courage, resourcefulness, and fortitude our men have held their place with the best since the outbreak of this war.

It was not necessary to dwell on the valor of our troops, to which eloquent reference has been made by Lord Crewe and Mr. Balfour. I do not believe, that in all the splendid traditions of the British Army for centuries past a more splendid record can be shown than that displayed in the retreat from Mons. I believe that no retirement was ever conducted successfully under greater difficulties and against more overwhelming odds, and the conduct of officers and men adds glory to the British Army that will not be forgotten as long as our race endures. I may, perhaps, be permitted to say that those who were sent across the sea from France and to the Dardanelles from Australia, from New Zealand, from Canada have proved that the old traditions of our race are not forgotten overseas and that the men there are prepared in any danger, in any peril to stand side by side with their comrades of these islands. A splendid force has been raised in South Africa, and I asso

ciate myself with what has been so well said as to the valor of the troops from India who have fought by the side of our men in France and Belgium.

Mr. Balfour has spoken of our Allies, and with what he has said I may be permitted to associate myself. One cannot forget the courage, the patience, the fortitude of France. We know that the soul of Russia is unconquered and unconquerable. The devotion and heroism of Belgium and Serbia have moved the admiration of the world. The fine valor of Italy is now in the fighting line with the Allies, and she is doing her appointed task as we expected she would do it. She stands ready, I imagine, for further services in case the emergencies of this war should demand them. I have said before that this is not like the wars of a hundred or two hundred years ago. This is a war of nations, and not of armies alone. But it is more than that. It is a war of material resources to an extreme degree. The industrial resources of the nations are being organized; all that the knowledge and science of the nations can devise is being brought into play. The command of the forces of nature which in the past centuries, and especially in the past one hundred years, we have learned has been brought to bear, and for that reason as well as for the reasons which Mr. Balfour has given I have every confidence in the outcome of this struggle because we have within this Empire resources almost limitless-resources infinitely greater than those of Germany and Austria-Hungary combined, and it merely depends upon our self-denial, and organized capacity and patriotism, as to whether we can and shall organize those resources to the end that our cause shall triumph.

I do not believe that we shall fail in that. Our race has never failed in time of crisis. Why should it fail now? To fail in doing that would be accounted to us in the years to come as dishonor. We will not fail. All that men can do our men have done at the front, and they will continue to do in the future.

In Canada we began as early as possible to organize our industrial resources for the production of munitions of war. We made our first effort as far back as August 21. Munitions of war have been the great and growing need of our men at

the front. Because it is apparent to us that so far as it is in the power of this Empire to strain every effort for the purposes of the war we must not attempt to do with men alone what our enemies are doing with munitions and guns.

As to what we have done in the past, whether in Canada or in these islands or elsewhere, let the dead past bury its dead. This is not the time to speak of the past, but to look at the future. What concerns us, whether in these islands or in any of the Overseas Dominions, is to see that, so far as the future is concerned, there shall be no failure, and I believe there will be no failure.

It may be said that in some respects the twelve months' war has not been all that we anticipated. I believe I am entirely within the bounds of truth, when I state that if there is any disappointment with us the disappointment of Germany is tenfold greater, and if there has been any disappointment, or if there should be any reverse in the future, that should merely inspire us with a higher resolve and a more inflexible determination to do our duty and to see that that which concerns the cause of civilization and humanity shall be carried to the issue which we all desire.

For a hundred years we have not had any wars which threatened the existence of our Empire, and for more than fifty years we have not been involved in any war which might perhaps be called a great one. Under the conditions of modern democracies here and elsewhere in the Empire considerations of material prosperity have been urged, and this is especially a danger in a new country like Australia or Canada. The call of the market-place has been sometimes clamorous and insistent, and in days such as these the soul of a nation is more truly tried than it is in war days, for the highest character of an Empire is sometimes formed then and not in the days of stress and trial, through the consequences of duty and self-sacrifice.

I rejoice greatly that in these islands and in the Overseas Dominions men have realized most fully that there is something greater than material prosperity, something greater than life itself. This war cannot fail to influence most profoundly the whole future of the world and of civilization. It has already most profoundly influenced the people of this Empire.