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Appendix No. 6.
CANADA.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Memorandum by Sir Edward Selby Smyth on plan for Canadian Reserve, sent with Secret Despatch of May 17, 1880.
1. IN my annual Report for last year, I referred to the question of Canadian military reserves. In my Report presented to Parliament this year, I enlarged considerably on the question of military and naval reserves as well.
There can be no doubt of the great importance to Canada, and to the Empire, that such reserves should be as soon as possible established.
2. In the Memoranda before me I observe two systems proposed.
3. One proposes to raise 5,000 men to perform eight drills monthly, to be certified by the Captain, and to be paid 6d. a-day by the Staff Officer of Pensioners or District Paymaster.
I do not think it would be possible to obtain any number of men to perform eight drills monthly; they could not be so frequently collected, nor spare time for so many broken periods in the year.
4. (B) Is apparently founded upon the recommendation in my annual Report, and I hope the Dominion Government may be induced to raise these three regiments of two battalions each, and if the Imperial Government would either subsidize them or pay them altogether, the whole question of an Imperial reserve would be solved in a practical and substantial manner.
5. The next plan, of raising 56 companies to form 7 battalions, to be trained one month each year, to receive 6d. a-day reserve pay, besides training pay.
6. This plan does not contemplate permanent battalions, therefore these companies must be affiliated with battalions of active militia in excess of the established strength of such corps, and forming an additional or reserve company.
7. I think the pay and bonus will be sufficient inducement for men to enrol, without any mention of land grant. There are plenty of young men, farmer's sons, of the very best material; the tramps or floating population of towns, with no fixed abode, and no tie to remain in one place would be useless to count on as a reserve.
8. The question is how to enlist a reserve, and how best to train and induce them to remain after enlistment.
9. It would not work to have Imperial Staff Officers of Pensioners, or that sort of officer to enlist, for the militia force in general would work against them with their local influence, and so spoil everything. They have a strong feeling of "Canada for Canadians," and would not submit to Imperial officers coming in the way of filling up their own companies, but would employ their own Members of Parliament and the public press to stop it. These sort of men pull a good many wires, and therefore we must work in accord with the active militia, because we should be unable to work either against it or without its influence.
10. The whole success, therefore, of this project, I conceive, depends upon full co-operation with the militia of the country. The prejudices and susceptibilities of the force would thus not be lost sight of, and instead of thinking these companies would supersede them and give them only second place, would, I believe, do all in their power to encourage volunteering into the Imperial Reserve, having at heart the honour of the Empire.
11. The local command should, like that of the militia, devolve upon the Deputy Adjutant- General of each district, and the task of organizing the reserve should be under the superintendence of those officers.
12. Certain battalions would be selected by them upon which to affiliate the reserve company. They would then order certain Captains of militia to enrol in excess of his strength a percentage for Imperial Reserve, say one-half; one would be the active, the other the reserve half company; or, the quota from each district being determined, the Deputy Adjutant-General should call for volunteers from the reserve militia: each parish in Canada would thus become the unit in this systematic arrangement, such volunteers to be enrolled under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonels of active militia at the different head-quarters of the corps selected.
13. These battalion head-quarters to be the future points for concentration for annual training of reserve men affiliated to that battalion.
14. The companies of reserve to be supernumerary, and only linked to battalions. They should train part of their time independently, and complete the remainder with their linked militia corps.
15. Every second or third year, or, indeed, every year after the first, the reserve companies should perform the regulated number of days' drill with their affiliated battalion, and be grouped in reserve battalions of eight companies each, at fixed points, for the remainder of the twenty-eight days' training.
16. The three Ontario battalions to assemble at London, Toronto, and Kingston; the two Quebec, at Quebec, and St. John, P.Q., on the Richelieu River; New Brunswick battalion at either Fredericton or St. John, perhaps a half battalion at each; and the Nova Scotia battalion at Halifax.
17. I refer, of course, entirely to infantry reserves.
I don't conceive it would be desirable to raise
reserves for any other arms of the service in Canada, at least for the present.
18. As regards officering these companies, keeping in view the necessity for selecting the fittest and, at the same time, giving Canada credit for her ability to supply officers as well as men, great care would be necessary in the selection.
19. There would be a difficulty in finding 112 officers, or two per company, sufficiently independent of trade or business to become reserve officers, and ready at any hour to forego their At the same time I confess I am amazed at the business and proceed on active service in case of war. great military spirit of the population, and so, perhaps, the trouble I have stated might not really stand in the way when put to the test.
20. At any rate, Deputy Adjutant-Generals must find from the reserve militia or elsewhere
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