When it is realized that these Corps had great difficulty in obtaining recruits, owing to the fear that men would be retained for Home Service, the numbers shown are considered very creditable.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE CANADIAN ENGINEERS.
The Corps of Canadian Engineers has no local connection with any Province in the same way that Infantry Regiments and Battalions have. At the end of the War in France it consisted of some twelve Battalions, together with other small Engineering Units with Administrative Staffs, etc., which Units were recruited from all parts of Canada, and no particular Engineering Unit was sent from the Province of Nova Scotia.
A great many individual officers and men were sent to the Engineers from this Province, and did very excellent work, but were posted to various Overseas Units, hence the impossibility of describing particularly the work and services of Nova Scotia Sappers.
As far as service in Canada is concerned the defence of the Fortress of Halifax was a very important matter, and the services of a very large number of officers and other ranks of the R.C.E. Permanent Force and Canadian Engineers, Active Militia, were employed at this Fortress throughout the War. Their strenuous duties and long hours in connection with the continual operation of electric lights and maintenance of fortifications were carried out untiringly and most conscientiously.
Practically every officer and other rank in these two Corps not only volunteered for Overseas service, but also took very strenuous measures to get to France, by hook or by crook, and a great many of them were successful. Others unfortunately were retained in Halifax for the defence of that Fortress.
CHAPTER XXXI.
MILITIA UNITS ON HOME SERVICE.
The following memorandum was prepared to bring to the attention of the Minister of Militia and Militia Council some facts and figures respecting the services of the Militia of Canada in Canada, and particularly the Fortress of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Atlantic Seaboard, who although they repeatedly volunteered for Overseas were not allowed to go because their duties were held to be supremely important by those in authority.
1st—Halifax has always been a Military and Naval Station of the Empire, and confidential instructions have always been in existence and a comprehensive scheme of defence in the hands of officers commanding Units, to be put in force immediately on declaration of war. Therefore, the following Halifax Fortress Order was issued by the G.O.C. M.D. No. 6, August 5, 1914:
No. 681. “War having broken out with Germany the Halifax defence scheme comes into effect forthwith.”