THE LACK OF RECRUITING FACILITIES IN CANADA.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR: SIR,—Your editorials, your leading articles, the correspondence you publish, reiterate weekly the need for men and more men. Here in Western Canada, and I believe it is the same in Eastern Canada, men single and unemployed, the vast majority between the ages of eighteen and thirty-eight, the vast majority born in the British Isles, are flocking into the cities and are willing and anxious to fight for Canada and the Mother Country. What do they find ? For every man required for the Canadian forces there are five or more offering themselves. The cities they have come to have no work for them, the country districts and railroad camps they have come from require them no longer ; they are forced to beg, borrow, or steal a livelihood. The Press and public men in public speeches on both sides of politics have sought in vain an explanation for the anomaly from the Government on this side of the Atlantic. Is there no chance of an explanation coming from your side P If the British Government chartered a steamer to sail from Halifax on Christmas Day, no better
Christmas gift could be given to hundreds of young men in Canada than the opportunity to fight for their King. If Canada cannot mobilize these men here, if Canada cannot give them employment, let her at least see that they are given the opportunity to fight —I am, Sir, &c.,
[If the facts are as stated by our correspondent, a great opportunity would seem to have been missed. Every citizen of the British Empire who wishes to join the Imperial forces ought to be given facilities for doing so, provided he is eligible. It should in war time be his inalienable right.— ED. Spectator.]
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