CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

What the preceding chapters indicate-Some points of naval and military defence considered - Importance of a mobile, wellequipped land force-The assistance which such a force may derive from modern science in defence of a water frontierAeroplanes, etc.-Value of close concert in naval and military action-Facilities for defence possessed by Canada-Creation, under the Imperial Defence Conference recommendations, of a Canadian Headquarters Section of the Imperial General Staff.

To what nature of defensive measures, then, do the character of the Canadian boundary line, the experience of the war of 1812-14, the views of the Duke of Wellington as to the sine qua non of Canadian defence, the changes affecting defence which have taken place since 1814, the present situation on the lakes, and the circumstances of Canada to-day, seem to point as best adapted to maintain the integrity of the Canadian frontier ?

As to this, it must be expected that opinions will vary; but it is proposed in this concluding chapter, and although it must involve occasional repetition of what has been already said, to sum up what is apparently indicated.

In the first place, the dictum of Wellington and his recommendations for the defence of Canada 1

1 See p. 93.

remain in their spirit and in substance as applicable now as when they were written, although, were he alive to-day, he might no doubt have added to them, in consequence of the development of the Dominion since 1814.

It is evident that an enemy with a naval force of fast, well-armed vessels under steam, completely dominant upon the lakes, could continually threaten Canada with invasion at so many points of her southern frontier, that it would keep her defending land forces on a qui vive so perpetual that it would tend to weary out the defence.

Also, that such a naval force would almost certainly have the power in the end to carry through a descent at some point where it might not be possible to concentrate a land force in time sufficient to prevent it; and the hostile warships, if armed with ordnance of greater range and power than the artillery of the land defence, would have the railways along the Canadian water-border, with the undefended cities and towns, under effective fire without danger to themselves, and without landing troops at all.

A defensive land force alone, without support from a naval one upon the lakes, must be from the first most heavily handicapped, and unfairly pitted against an enemy whose ascendancy upon the lake waters had become so established that his warvessels could traverse them safely and at will from point to point.

Moreover, without naval power on the water boundary, an active, as distinguished from a merely passive (and therefore incomplete), defence

of the frontier would become almost impracticable for Canada in the region of the lakes; and for her to yield up voluntarily her power of assuming the offensive in war beyond her water boundary would be to deliberately sacrifice one of the strongest points of her position as regards defence, and ignore the teaching of 1812-14.

Therefore Canada, if the integrity of her southern frontier is to be preserved, cannot afford to-day, any more than she could in 1812-14, to suffer the control of the lakes and the St. Lawrence to pass to an enemy. But such control of the water can never be either obtained or maintained by a land force alone.

Canada also has to make provision for the defence, not of the lake frontier only, but of her Atlantic and Pacific ports; and to provide such a description of defence as will be available the instant war breaks out. It cannot be anticipated that time will be given to receive naval reinforcements from a distance before some hostile blow is struck.

Even if the contest should be with a European -i.e., a comparatively distant-naval Power it is clear that "no longer, as in Monroe's time, does a vast Atlantic Ocean separate the Western Continent from Europe. Man's ingenuity has reduced it to a small stream, across which the fleets of European Powers can cross in less time than it took Monroe to post from Washington to Boston."1

If the contest should be with an enemy on the southern frontier, then the lakes and seaports of 1 The Valor of Ignorance, by Homer Lea (1909).

Canada may become still more rapidly the scene of hostilities.

Although the British Navy may be able both to watch and account for the main battle fleet of the enemy, it certainly cannot be expected to safeguard the Canadian frontier from invasion during the first weeks, possibly months, of war between Great Britain and a first-class naval Power, not to say two such Powers. That security must at the outset mainly and unavoidably depend upon Canada herself.

Finally, water transport when it can be resorted to remains to-day in war, in spite of the introduction of railways, superior as a carrying power to land transport in many respects.

"The volume of a river's flow is intangible; it cannot be blown up, or, if sufficiently large, be obstructed." In this connection, and from a defensive point of view, it would seem a mistake to permit, as has at times been suggested, the construction for commercial purposes of a barrage completely across the St. Lawrence, with locks on the American side (thus controlling the passage of the river) between Kingston and Montreal—a greater mistake than to sanction the Channel tunnel between England and France.

"The sea, when free from the enemy's warships, offers the best means of communication-not only on account of the speed of modern steamers and their carrying capacity, but from the fact that their

1 Imperial Defence, by Lieutenant-Colonel (now Brigadier-General) E. S. May, 1902, p. 109.

2 And the same applies to the great lakes of Canada.

lines can be as numerous as are the ports controlled on the enemy's seaboard." But neither sea, nor lake, nor river, transport is available in war safe extent where there is not naval control of the water.

to

any

Thus, for Canada naval ascendancy on her seacoasts, inland waters, and lakes and especially does this apply to Lake Ontario-cannot consistently with the security of her frontier be yielded to any foe. The lakes on her water frontier, if ascendancy upon them is held by her, form a formidable obstacle to an enemy; but if their control is in the hands of that enemy, they become a danger to herself.

As a consequence, an efficient Canadian Navy, as well as British naval power on the ocean, would seem to be essential to an efficient Canadian defence.

Passing on from the subject of naval defence to land defence, it must be borne in mind that Canada is not an island, although from her geographical and strategical position her future (within the Empire) may be that of an important naval Power.

She cannot from a naval force alone, whether it be her own or that of Great Britain, obtain that comparative security from sudden invasion which is enjoyed by the British Isles, Japan, Australia, or New Zealand, all countries to attack whose borders an enemy must be brought on ships, and by ships alone. She is also now more vulnerable by land than in 1814, owing to the greater

1 The Valor of Ignorance, by Homer Lea (1909).