s and
corps had sprung up here and there throughout the country with no
proportion existing between them and the other arms of the service. And
yet within a short two months after the outbreak of hostilities a
complete division, armed and equipped, landed in England, and in a bare
six months were in the field holding their own line of trenches.

To appreciate the difficulties, however, that attended this
transformation we must look back to those happy days prior to August,
1914, and witness the Canadian Militia in its own home.

This consisted of the "Drill-hall," or "Armouries," a long, low building
equipped more or less with barred windows and castellated turrets at one
or more corners. This building is one of the sights of the city, and is
pointed out by the cabby or taxi-driver to the English gentlemen and
other tourists who come out with the laudable intention of writing
books.

If the castellated towers are missing, and the building is constructed
on strictly utilitarian lines, one is safe in referring to it as the
"Drill-hall"; but if a couple of old cannon, vintage 1800, guard its
portals, and barred windows and frowning turrets add to its martial
splendour, then you have an "Armouries." By observing this simple rule
one can discriminate between the two as easily as telling a church from
a cathedral.

The existence of such a building is largely due to the efforts of the
local member of Parliament, and the style of architecture varies
directly with the square of his popularity with the party in power. Thus
a flourishing full-strength battalion may be housed in a dingy, drab
wooden structure, and in the next town a very ornate and modern
building may be tenanted by a corps that is only struggling for
existence, or perhaps not even struggling. It is well, however, to
refrain from too much criticism of these buildings, pretentious and
hideous as they may be, for in them are taught the ideals and principles
which so many of our youth have died to uphold in the rain-sodden fields
of Flanders.

Considering the shortness of what is locally known as the "drill
season," the results obtained are good. General French, in his report of
a few years ago, described our horses as "half-broken and our men but
little more," but that is only to be expected in a country where a man
is considered to be wasting his time if he devotes even the little that
he can ill afford to the military profession.

However, even if the half-