125

A—s

Sir WILFRID LAURIER : I would leave it as it is taking out the words "to immediate action " —" without wishing to commit any of the Governments " I think is better. Mr. DEAKIN : We passed it in that form, but if we are altering it I think it is a great improvement to leave out all those words. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : I would take out the words "to immediate action," and substitute " selected " for " recruited." Mr. HALDANE : Yes, that is much better. Mr. F. R. MOOR : Yes, that has been done. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : On this point may I ask for information ? It is a thing we should know more about. How is this selection to be made ? Would Mr. Haldane select from the different Colonial officers in Canada, for instance ? Mr. HALDANE : Our plan is this. We have a list of persons eligible for appointment to the General Staff. If you send over a name and say : " This is a man we recommend to you," we should of course ask you for his qualifications, and we should put him on the list, and then arrange with you from the names put on the list to select somebody for an appointment in exchange for somebody we sent to you. Sir FREDERICK BORDEN : 1 would like to have it understood, and I think this is what is understood really, that where there is a General Staff now in existence, as there is in Canada, members of that Staff should be selected to fill appointments on the General Staff. Mr. HALDANE : Yes; you would not send people who were not on your General Staff. Sir FREDERICK BORDEN : No. Mr. HALDANE : No. Each country would have its General Staff oiganization, either very much developed or rudimentary, as it might be, but you would send people from your Staff whatever it was. Sir FREDERICK BORDEN : And there would be no selection, as I understand, except through the Government of the particular country interested. Mr. HALDANE : That is right. We should take nobody whom you did not recommend out of your General Staff. None of us would, of "course, bind ourselves one way or the other; it would be a matter of convenience and arrangement; but we should take over here in the ordinary course naturally anybody you recommended as being well qualified from your General Staff, and at your request we should send you somebody whom you liked.

Fifth Day. 23 April 1907.

Military Defence.