From the News

Dated: December 6, 1914

CANADA IN ARMS
PREMIER ON THE TRAINING OF THE CONTINGENTS.
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) TORONTO, Dec. 5.

To-day Sir Robert Borden, the Premier, inspected the second contingent. which is being trained in Toronto, and afterwards addressed a joint meeting of the Canadian and Empire clubs.

He reviewed at length the steps taken to organize and dispatch contingents and arrange for the regular supply of troops for active service while the war lasts. Describing the camp at Valcartier, he said:

You perhaps do not realize how great an undertaking it was for a non-military country to assemble, organize train. equip. and despatch so large a force within that brief period. It is, I believe, the largest military force that has ever crossed the Atlantic at one time. In the great Armada which threatened the shores of Great Britain three centuries ago, there were less than 20,000 soldiers. The force we have sent across the Atlantic is neatly 50 per cent greater than the total number of British troops under Wellington's command at Waterloo.

Again he said:

It would be not only useless but unjust and cruel as well to send untrained men to the front against highly-trained and seasoned troops. Thus the troops are receiving in Britain the same tests, training, and exercise which are prescribed for the Volunteer Army of the Mother Country. That they will acquit themselves worthily no one can doubt who saw them at Valcartier.

The Premier added that if the training of the soldier was important, the training, skill, and experience of the men who command were even more essential and imperative. The officers of the Canadian Militia had all the necessary qualities, but for them, even more than for the men, the training and experience at Valcartier and on Salisbury Plain was not only invaluable but absolutely essential before they should lead the men into action.