It was a curious characteristic of the press comments and magazine articles and book studies of the War during these months that while varied fighting was going on in the various Colonies of these Powers and in the case of Great Britain, notably, countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India were pouring out men and gifts to aid the Empire, statistical calculations usually rated Great Britain as not an Empire but simply a nation with the wealth and population of its two little islands in the North Sea.
Properly the $80,000,000,000 of estimated British wealth should have e included the thousands of millions of treasure in India and Egypt, the gold mines and diamond resources of South Africa, the wheat fields and mines of Canada, the sheep farms and gold of Australia and many other sources; the estimate of population should have included the countless millions from which Britain could draw and did draw in the day of emergency. In this vast Empire British capital had been invested to an enormous amount—the estimated total in 1914 being $2,570,0000,000 for Canada and Newfoundland, $1,893,000,000 in India and Ceylon,$1,850,000,000 in south Africa, $1,660,000,000 in Australia, or a total in all British countries of $8,900,000,000. When the War broke out these Dominions endeavored to help the Mother Country in every possible way and the following table shows what was done in Canada alone during the first few months of the conflict:
THE DOMINION
Expeditionary force of over 32,000 men, fully equipped; 50,000 others under training for the front. Over 200 field and machine guns. Two submarines, for general service ($1,050,000); H.M.C.S. Niobe and Rainbow for general service. 1,000,000 bags of flour. $100,000 for “Hospice Canadien” in France. $50,000 for the relief of Belgian sufferers.
THE PROVINCES
ALBERTA: 500,000 bushels of oats; 5,000 bags of flour for Belgians. Civil service, 5 per cent of salaries up to $1500 per annum, and 10 per cent in excess of that amount to Canadian Patriotic Fund.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: 25,000 cases of canned salmon; $5,000 to Belgian Relief Fund.
MANITOBA: 10,000 men; 50,000 bags of flour; $5,000 to Belgian Relief Fund.
NEW BRUNSWICK: 1,000 men; 100,000 bushels of potatoes, 15,000 barrels of potatoes for Belgium.
NOVA SCOTIA: $100,000 to the Prince of Wales Fund; apples for the troops; food and clothing for Belgium.