teers Reserve for the native army, and the Imperial Service Troops which are raised and maintained by the Independent States and are not actually part of the British Army, although they would always co-operate with the British Army in any expeditions in India. There are also the Frontier Militia and the Indian Military Police.

The Canadian forces, as you know, are commanded by the Governor-General as Commander-in-chief, but the administration is in the hands of the Minister of Militia and Defence, assisted by the Militia Council whose duties are practically the same as those of the Army Council in the United Kingdom. The permanent force consists of the units of all branches of the service, and besides garrisoning the fortresses, one of their principal duties is the instruction of the active militia. The active militia has now been organized into Divisions and Cavalry Brigades. There are six divisional associates and three independent districts which, like the Commands and Districts in the United Kingdom, have a varying number of troops according to the population of the area.

In Australia, the affairs are administered by the Military Board under the Minister of Defence. The Country is divided into six Military Districts corresponding with the six states of the Commonwealth. The permanent force consists of an administrative and instructionary staff and a few other troops. The Militia is organganized into field and garrison forces. The Field Force consists of five brigades of Light Horse, two Infantry Brigades, and four Mixed Brigades. That is to say, they consist of mounted men, infantry, and a proportion of administrative and departmental units. The Garrison Force is for the various defended parts in each state and comprises all parts of the service. The Reserve consists of members of the Rifle Clubs who have taken the oath of allegiance, and men who have already served in the Defence Force.

The forces in New Zealand are under the control of a Council consisting of the Minister of Defence, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Finance Member.

The permanent force consists of Artillery and Engineers only. The Territorial Force consists of the units of all branches of the Service; but the highest organization at present is that of a regiment in case of Cavalry and Infantry, and a brigade in the case of Artillery. There are, however, four Military Districts each of which comprises a mixed brigade Command. I have no doubt the troops will soon be organized into brigades like those in Australia. The Militia are not organized, but all the male inhabitants between 17 and 55 are liable to serve. Nothing definite has been settled as to the affairs of the Union of South Africa, but each province maintains its own Defence Force at present. As I said before, this next year they probably will bring in a new system.

I am afraid I have not time to deal in detail with the forces at the remaining British posts, but I can safely say, in conclusion, that co-operation between the Mother country and the great self-governing dominions in military affairs appears to be working most satisfactorily.

PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE IN WEST AFRICA

An Address by DR. TOM JAYS, of Nigeria, before the Empire Club of Canada, on November 23, 1911.

Mr. President and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to come here to-day, and to tell you something about the British Empire in West Africa. It is a privilege and also a responsibility to talk to you about that part of the world to which the globe trotters do not come. Because of the deadly swamps, West Africa has been shunned by our people in the past, but it is a mistake to think that the whole of the West African possessions are as deadly as certain portions on the coast. There is a great healthy section in the interior and, as the country develops, it will become a big factor in the work of the Empire.

I want to talk to you especially to-day about the situation in the interior, and first I want to point out on this map the portions of the Empire which we call West Africa.

You see this small land right at the Gambia river; it contains only about four square miles of territory, but it is alongside a very fine river, and has one of the first harbours as you come down from the north; and further along here, we come to what is a branch of the Niger River. That four square miles has done, in the course of a year, trade to the extent of $2,980,000.

Here is Sierra Leone, distant about 180 miles south, and this is the hinterland of Sierra Leone, about 12 miles by 22 miles, something like a small peninsula. This peninsula is pretty nearly the only possession which Great Britain has, which she paid for in solid gold; we have got that to our credit. Years ago our forefathers paid for that piece of land, and I think it is as much to our credit that we are holding it, as it is to the credit of our fathers that they bought it.

Twenty-five or thirty years ago we had only three or four little pieces of land in that district-Gambia, Sierra Leone Peninsula, and the Gold Coast towns on the coast. We never troubled about the people in the interior as long as they were peaceful, but of course there were constant disturbances in there. We had to go in and punish King Prempe for his fearful cruelties; for the murders and the human sacrifices were perfectly appalling. The slave trade was carried on in the Nigerian district and of course we had to put a stop to that. We put another king in Prempe's place, told them to behave themselves, and left them, and there was no further disturbance.

The French went in here, and when they went in, they stayed; they did not really police the country, and they did not develop it as they might have done, and we had, for the protection of commerce, and I think I may say for the good of the natives, to go in there and claim a protectorate over the whole of these portions that are shaded red on this map.

The consequence is that this country has gone ahead in a wonderful way, and I must give you a few statistics to show this. In 1890 the revenue for the whole of our possessions was £317,000; in 1909, £2,800,000. The expenditure in 1890 was £267,000, and amounted two years ago to £3,300,000. The imports in 1900 were only £1,700,000; last year £8,700,000; the exports were £1,600,000, and last year they were £8,200,000. The increase in the trade of these districts has come through our going in there and helping the people to develop the trade of their country, especially in the gathering of palm oil and palm kernels, and rubber and such like goods, and establishing security for property.

These people are just the typical negro people, and we are very apt to think they are not a big factor in the world's history; but out in West Africa one realizes that the country cannot be developed without the negro, that only as we develop the negro can we get the wealth out of that country, and that only in that way can we develop the whole country and use it as an integral part of our Empire.

They are a people that go in for agriculture, are splendid farmers, and grow magnificent corn, and large patches of yams. There are people there who have been able to smelt iron, and to make razors. I have been shaved with one of these razors; you sit down on the ground and a man sits down behind you, and goes over your face, and in a way picks the hairs out one by one and so you get shaved. (Laughter.)

People who can be developed so as to make steel, undoubtedly are a people of a good deal of brain power. I do not think the negro has as much brain power as the white races; yet upon him the prosperity of the country depends, for we have very few white men in these districts. There are only about 1,300 white men in the whole of that territory, and there are 13,000,000 or 14,000,000 of people at the very least; so that whatever advance has come, has come because of the natives. We hear a good deal in the United States about the negro being deficient; it is simply because he has not had his chance; he ought to have it. It has been known for a great many years that the negro in West Africa is not lazy; he used to be lazy, because he had just to do enough work to get his skin full, and with a little, a very little, piece of cloth to cover his body, his needs were satisfied. The average Government official would dub him as a lazy man and the people who write at home in arm-chairs about sociological problems would also put him down as a lazy person, and naturally so. The real reason why the natives in West Africa-the place I know-were lazy, was because they had no security for property. A man will not toil and sweat if he thinks that at the end of ten years somebody will come and take all his property away. That is what has been happening out there for generations past; and now over the whole of these districts there is security for property, and prosperity is going forward by leaps and bounds, and we only want successful government in that country to see it advance in a manner we cannot conceive of at the present time.

Two years ago, in one of the Government blue books dealing with the colonies in West Africa, appeared a