CHAPTER XVII

WHAT CANADA IS DOING FOR THE EMPIRE

VANCOUVER town, where the notes for this chapter were collected, must not be confounded with the island of the same name christened after Captain Vancouver, the naval officer who was sent to the Pacific coast of Canada in 1785 to establish British sovereignty, which was disputed at the time by the Spanish Government. Vancouver town is on the mainland of British Columbia, the capital of Vancouver Island being Victoria, which is also the capital of the province. Victoria was a flourishing city long before the town of Vancouver existed. The first settlers on the island came by sea before the opening of the passes over the Rocky Mountains, and in the ordinary course of natural selection Victoria, with its beautiful harbour, became the seat of government. The advent of the Canadian Pacific Railway to the coast changed the circumstances of the case. From an insignificant fishing village Vancouver rose in 1885 to the dignity of a town, and now has a population of over 50,000,

while Victoria contains less than 30,000 inhabitants. Outstripped in population, Victoria will, none the less, remain the political and residential metropolis of British Columbia, while Vancouver and neighbouring seaport towns, as they arise, will more and more absorb the commerce, industry, and oversea trade of this Far Western province of the British Empire.

Vancouver town is the western terminus of the most important strategical railway of the Empire. What the Suez Canal does for British interests in the East the Canadian Pacific Railway does in the West. Just as the Canal links the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean, so does the railway through Canada join the Atlantic to the Pacific, only much more securely, since the junction is exclusively British. When Sir John Macdonald proposed the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he did so principally for reasons of Imperial policy. The words which he used at the time were almost identical with those of Mr. Disraeli in the House of Commons when he was defending the purchase of the Suez Canal shares: mend this great undertaking, not on financial grounds, though I believe its future financial success is assured, but for high reasons of State policy, because the railway when completed will join together the West and the East of the Dominion of Canada, will secure a predominant share of the trade with China and Japan, and will provide a safe passage for British troops should the

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Mediterranean route ever become blocked by the enemies of Great Britain.'

Since these words were spoken the naval strength of England has been nearly trebled in comparison with that of the other Powers of Europe, and her maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean is at present undisputed. None the less have Sir John Macdonald's words proved to be true. The day after the last rail was placed on the Lake Superior section of the Canadian Pacific Railway, a detachment of artillery from Montreal was sent to reinforce the Dominion troops then assembling near Winnipeg for the suppression of the Riel rebellion. The first train to traverse the entire route of the railway from ocean to ocean was loaded with naval stores, destined for the Imperial dockyard at Esquimault. While the writer was in Winnipeg, a train passed the town on its way from Quebec to Vancouver, carrying for the first time the China mail, which has hitherto been taken through the Suez Canal to Shanghai by steamers belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. If, as seems certain, the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company can fulfil the new contract which was concluded in 1906 with the Postmaster-General, the English mails will reach Shanghai in twenty-seven and a half days, as against thirty-two days by the London - Brindisi - Suez route. Yokohama is now only twenty-two days distant from London. When steamers equal in speed to the new Atlantic Empress steamers are