Conscription, 1917: A Brief for the Defence

CONSCRIPTION, 1917: A BRIEF FOR THE DEFENCE A.M. WILLMS ;•1 -;HE reaction of French Canada to conscripti has been treated in some detailby Professor Mason Wade xandMiss Elizabeth Armstrong 2butthestory ofitseffect ontheLiberal party and on the electionof 1917hasnot yet beenfully told. Recently thepapers of several leading menin thispolitical drama havebeenmadeavailable to historians andthey inspirefurther study of these events. Thepapers of SirWillrid Lauriertracelike a fascinatinnovelthecollapse of thestron Liberal art around g g p y itstragic, white-plumed hero.Theyblamethecatastrophe onthe political machinations of the Government andcontend that conscription wasneither necessary norsuccessful, butthatit caused a serious rift betweenQuebecand the rest of Canada.Thusthe LaurierPapers tendto confirm the storyof conscription asit has been accepted byCanadian historians. Butthereareother versions of thisstoryin suchcollections asthe Borden Papers, the Rowell Papers, andtheDafoePapers. In factthecumulative effect ofnew materials istoshow thatnotonlywasconscription militarilynecessary -thatCanada's contribution tothefighting lagged behind that of herprincipal alliesandsister Dominions untilconscription was employed-but also thatthesuccess ofconscription was notachieved atthecost ofanational tragedy. One fact that constantly obtrudes on the readerof the new collections isthe remarkable politicalsuccess of conscription. This raises thesuspicion thattheMilitaryService Billwasintroduced by the.Government asa politicalexpedient. Thereisno absolute evidence to proveor disprove thissuggestion, but it deserves fuller examination. Whenever themembers ofthefederal Conservative partyassessed theirpolitical stock during thewinter of1916 to1917 theyfeltvery uncomfortable. The extended life of Parliament wasrunning out andthe,Government wasunpopular withthepublic.TheLiberal partyontheotherhandwas,or appeared to be,strong andconfident .The Conservatives werein trouble.Of sevenprovincial elections heldbetween August, 1915, andJune, 1917, theylostseven. In threeprovinces .Conservative governments wereousted andin XThe French Canadians1760-1945 (Toronto, 1955). :•TheCrisisof Quebec1914-1918 (New York, 1937). 338 Vol. XXXVII, no. 4, Dec., 1956 CONSCRIPTION, 1917: A BRIEF FOR THE DEFENCE 889 all the other elections the Conservatives held fewer seats after the votingthantheyhadbefore.In ManitobaandBritishColumbia the elections wereutterrouts.In the latterprovince the Liberals hadstarted theyear1916withnoseats in theprovincial legislature and finishedwith 87 out of 47, and in Manitoba the Conservatives lost22 seats, givingthe Liberalsan over-allmajorityof $2 seats. Whileprovincial elections do not alwaysreflectthe standing of federal parties, these wereunusually heavyportents. Of the New Brunswick election Dafoe wrote: "The result in New Brunswick musthavebeenverydiscouraging to them,asthat wasin fact a trial of strength between theDominion parties"; awhilea leading federal Liberal admitted modestly: "Oursuccesses in theprovincial arenas areduesolely tothemistakes, corruption andincompetence ofouropponents .... ,,4 Federalby-elections areanother measure of government popularity .The paucityof by-elections in thisperiodconstitutes an admission of Government weakness; for, while the Conservative party retained itsseats inthethree ridin[s thatwere opened, the Government darednotissue writsintheothertwentyconstituencies whichbecame vacant between March,1915,andJuly,1917. Therewerereasons fortheGovernment's unpopularity. Its weaknessand ineptness appeared quite obviously in the RossRifle d•bdcle. Wartimepatronage andprofiteering wasnotprovenby a royalcommission orin a court oflaw,buttheLiberalmembers of Parliament werenot alonein believing the repeated accusations andin blaming thelaxityof the Government. The costof living wasrising verysharply withthewartime economic boom andthe benefits of higher prices didnotaccrue to all thepopulation. The parliamentary Opposition felt that Messrs. Mackenzie andMann should notbereimbursed fora railwaytakenoverby theGovernmentwhenat thepointof bankruptcy. Sir George Fosterfeared this might make electioneering material, 5While oftheQuebec and Saguenay Railway purchase hewrote: "TheQuebec andSaguenay mess goes through-an unsavory andabsolutely indefensible iobputthrough bythePrime Minister in pursuance of arrangements madewithForgetandtheBankof Commerce nearlythreeyears ago. "ø Theextraordinary personality ofSam Hughes constituted bothan aPublicArchives of Canada,DafoePapers,Dafoeto Sifton,Feb. 27, 1917. 4P.A.C.,LaurierPapers, E. M. Macdonald to Laurier,Sept.28, 1916. •P.A.C.,FosterPapers,Diary, Aug. 16, 1917. albtd.,May 16, 1916. 340 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW internal weakness withintheGovernment andanelection handicap. Thiswasalmost unanimously admitted on bothsides, whilethe adverse reportof Judge Galt onHon.RobertRogers' connections withgovernment contracts inManitoba washoney totheOpposition bears. Of these two ministers Foster asserted: "Both have been loadsto carry-neithershouldhavebeenmademinister-forboth thepartyhaspaidandwill paydearly. "7Theincreasing failureof recruiting andthedismal flopof twosubstitute measures, national service andthesemi-active militia,served toincrease a general lack of confidence. The Prime Minister was accusedof weakness,inaction ,and vacillation;"a well meaningincompetent "s Dafoe dubbed him,whilea member of thecabinet repeatedly denounced hispolicyof "drift-corroding drift? The Conservative wholooked at thepoliticalscene wouldthen turnanxiously to thecalendar. Thelife of Parliament wouldexpire onOctober 7, 1917,andthebelligerent Opposition werenotlikely to grantanother extension. With sixmonths left,Dafoepredicted: "Theirdefeatwhentheyappealto the peopleappears inevitable, unless some newfactorenters intothe contest andgivesthema good battlecry. "•ø The miracle happened. Sixmonths later,a newfactorgave Borden andhisparty notonly agreat battle crybutalarge maiority in theelection...