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Fifth Day. 23 April 1907

take over this service and to relieve the Admiralty of so much. The same thing has been done with regard to the great iakes and in connection with the great lakes I might call the attention of the Conference to this point. It is not to be supposed, I think, that the Admiralty could do anything on the great lakes. It would not be a very easy thing to do. This service, then, should be taken over entirely by the Canadian Government. As a matter of fact, it was done by the British Government for some time. They had some boats there, but those boats went away, and they were replaced by Canadian boats. We have to-day on the lakes a boat which is an armed-boat which is looking specially after the protection of our fisheries against the American fishermen, not only for the carrying out of the local regulations, but mostly, and I may say almost exclusively, for preventing the Americans from coming and fishing in our waters. We have on the great lakes (large seas, properly speaking) American States bordering those great lakes, and they are having navies of their own now. I think-that three States bordering on the three great lakes, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, are spending not less than 15,000,000 dollars themselves for keeping up a navy on these lakes, and are drilling their men on the shores of the lakes. Besides, they have some ships which are not armed, because it would be against the conclusions of the treaty, but built in order to be prepared in case of emergency. As far as Canada is concerned, one of the first duties we shall have to look after is our protection in connection with the great lakes, I may say that the wars we have had since 1763, since Canada has become part of the British Empire, came from the United States. We had an invasion in 1775, we had an invasion in 1812, and we had the Fenian Raids in the Sixties. All those invasions came from the United States. So we have to look specially to protect ourselves in that direction, and 1 may say we have been doing it as far as the great lakes are concerned, not to a very large extent it is true, but to the extent of spreading a sum of money which is quite important for a country of the size of ours. Now with regard to our Naval Militia, which comes under my Department, we have been, as I said, spending some money for the Fisheries Protection Service, and carrying out in that way not only some local self-defence, but also Imperial obligations, and 1 am sure we have been very glad to do it, and are glad to continue to do it. We established a couple of years ago a cruiser for Canada which is manned entirely by Canadian seamen. Those men are now drilling every day. We have a certain number of young men on that boat drilling every day and taking exercises, and acquiring knowledge in connection with Naval matters. I may say also in connection with that that we have been assuming some parts of the work which was done previously by the Admiralty not only in connection with the Fisheries Protection Service and Naval Militia, but also in regard to certain other matters. We have established wireless telegraphic stations. Several of them have been established on the Atlantic coast, and we are now under contract to establish some others on the Pacific coast. We have been asked by the Admiralty authorities to consult with them with regard to the communications of those different stations. We have been very glad to do it, and since we received that communication from the British authorities we have not established any of these wireless telegraphic stations without consulting with the British Admiralty. Those services are costing also a great deal of money, and are not included in the amount of money which has been given as our part of our Naval expenditure, though I suppose that the expenditure made in connection with wireless telegraphy in England is also under the control of the British Admiralty, and is included in the amount which is given here. We have taken over also the Hydrographic Survey, and we are to-day extending the Hydrographic Survey. We have engaged the services of a

Naval IJei k.nob. (Mr. Brodcnr.)