From The Literary Digest, 28 October 1900:
COLONIAL AID TO GREAT BRITAIN.
GREAT BRITAIN recruits her defensive and offensive forces entirely by voluntary enlistment. As the navy alone absorbs 100,000 men, when a war of such magnitude as the present attempt to conquer the Boers occurs, more or less difficulty is encountered in securing the necessary number of recruits. There is accordingly talk of assistance from the colonies.
The London Outlook says :
"The moment of peril to British interests in South Africa has brought offers of immediate and substantial military help from Canada and Australasia and elsewhere; from these homes of the British race where peace and prosperity have for basis the vital principle of those equal rights between white men of whatever race to secure which England is prepared to draw the sword in South Africa. . . . Why indeed, if they wish it, as they seemingly do, should not our colonial and Indian allies take upon themselves under British direction the brunt of the coming struggle in South Africa? The cause is theirs as well as ours, for without equal rights between the white races the empire is not worth a decade's purchase."
Concerning Australia, The St. James's Gazette says:
"Advance Australia! is all the cry nowadays, and at the present moment of war feeling our cousins at the antipodes have come well to the fore with an offer of volunteers for service in South Africa. The six Australian colonies are preparing a scheme for a combined force, and New Zealand has offered a contingent of mounted rifles. Some of our meaner-minded contemporaries are inclined to sneer at the practical benefit that 200 men will be to us. But it may be pointed out that an expenditure of £2o,ooo in six months is not such a despicable offer after all, that 1,8oo men have already volunteered from. Victoria alone, that a similar contribution from the other five Australian colonies would give a total of 12,000 men, and that would be by no means an inconsiderable addition to the 50,000 we are sending out ourselves. We do not suppose, however, the Australian total will be so large. But the mass of Englishmen look rather to the spirit that prompts the offer than the actual assistance it will be."
A contingent may also be sent from Canada, and the comments of the Canadian press on this subject are not without interest to Americans. The Toronto Monetary Times says:
"South Africa, threatened by the Boers, needs defense now; our turn may come to-morrow; if we do not assist the Cape, Natal, and other British colonies of South Africa, how can we expect them to assist us in the hour of our need? It is no answer to say that the defense of the colonies should be left wholly to the parent state; that is not equitable, and might not always be possible."
The Toronto World says:
"In dealing with the United States on the boundary question Canada has the power of the whole empire behind her. Do we adequately grapple with the significance of this fact? Just imagine where we would stand on that question if we were depending on our own resources. By this time the United States would be in possession of the whole Yukon. We would have little or no status as an independent nation. The United States would treat Canada just as it treats Venezuela, or any other small American state. Let Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Canadian Government remember these facts when debating whether Canada shall send a contingent to South Africa."
The Montreal Witness expresses itself in a similar way. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, however, will do nothing in the matter without the consent of Parliament. The French Canadian papers are not over-enthusiastic in the matter, yet they are not opposed to the sending of the contingent.
The Montreal Patrie expresses itself in the main as follows:
Now, what is the good of going to the Transvaal? It is a little country with few inhabitants, and the British empire has immense resources to reduce it. Where is the necessity of interfering with Canadian troops? And why should Sir Wilfrid Laurier be accused of disloyalty? If the present government had decided to send men without consulting Parliament, the Tory organs would have attacked it just the same, declaring that the Liberals draw the country into a foolish business.
The Presse thinks the war may be over ere the Canadians are ready. Even the English-Canadian papers are not unanimous in saying that the contingent should be sent. The Toronto Sun wants to know whether Canada is in the position of a feudatory Indian prince, who has no voice in the matter, but must send troops when required to do so. It continues:
"When imperial confederation becomes a fact all members of the federation will, of course, be bound in questions of peace and war by the federal vote, and will be required, in case of war, to furnish their contingents; but then each of them will have a voice in the federal councils. Imperial federation, however, is not yet a fact. In the mean time, the subject is in an uncovenanted state, and our people in Canada are in danger of being drawn, by the irresponsible zeal of a few enthusiastic imperialists, into local quarrels with which they have nothing to do and in which, if the question were fully submitted to them, their consciences might lead them to incline to the other side." — Translations made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.
