XX.
The Military Service Act only requires that those among us who can best be released from the occupations in which they are now engaged shall serve in the field under conditions as honorable as surround their fellow Canadians in uniform and under regulations no more onerous or exacting. The Militia Act as amended in 1906 provided that the Government could place the militia “on active service anywhere in Canada and also beyond Canada for the defence thereof at any time when it appears advisable so to do by reason of emergency.” Enough has been said to reveal an emergency in which nothing less fundamental is at stake than the existence of Canada as a free country. If Germany should triumph we would not have a choice between Independence and British Connection. We would pass under German sovereignty. There would be no protection under the Monroe Doctrine. If Germany should not be conquered the United States, in arms against the Germanic alliance, would be involved in the common defeat of the Allies. Washington would be as powerless as London or Ottawa to determine the future political status of the Canadian people. Recalling the desperate valor of Canadian soldiers in many battles with the best troops of Germany, is it likely that Ontario or Quebec or any other Canadian province would escape the hard fate of Alsace and Lorraine or receive a greater portion of mercy than the harassed Polish subjects of the Kaiser? Clearly, therefore, the Canadian regiments are as surely defending Canada in France and Flanders as though they were actually resisting invasion along the St. Lawrence.