Mr. FIELDING:

The resolution says

that the moneys appropriated for each year shall he alloted and paid to the provincial governments. I take it that it is intended to give them $50,000 the first- year, $100,000 the second year, and thereafter every year, without limitation, $150,000. There is no limitation so far as I can see; it becomes a permanent grant.

Mr. CROTHERS:

That is the proposition.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN:

I think there is a limitation based upon the expenditure by the different provinces.

Mr. FIELDING:

But the resolution

does not seem to me to provide for expenditure in any other way than by the provinces.

*Sir ROBERT BORDEN:

I think the hon. gentleman is quite right.

Mr. JACOBS:

What is the Object of distributing this money to the provinces and having them pay it o-ut?

Mr. CROTHERS:

The object is to encourage each province to establish these labour bureaus. In Quebec to-day there are three or four of these labour bureaus -one at Montreal, another at Sherbrooke, and there may be two or three others. In Ontario there are eight or ten. Our object is -to have these labour exchanges established through all the provinces.

Mr. JACOBS:

Why should not this department handle the matter direct?

Mr. CROTHERS:

This country is so very large that it would be a great undertaking for the Government to establish labour exchanges throughout the country to see that men were sent, eay, from Halifax to Vancouver. We thought it better to assist the provinces, as five of them have already engaged in this work.

Mr. JACOBS:

If I remember correctly, some years ago the Government were op-

posed to handing over various sums of money to the provinces for the building of highways, on the ground that the central governments should handle that imatter themselves.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN:

The hon. genlem-an is mistaken; if he looks up Hansard he will find a different story. I think the idea of this legislation is this: The provincial governments have already established labour bureaus in many of the provinces, and it would be an unwise thing for the Federal Government to duplicate that endeavour and establish labour bureaus themselves. They cannot interfere with what has been done by the provinces. On the other hand it is desired to encourage the movement. Therefore, following a conference with the provinces on the subject, it has been decided to give them this much assistance for the purpose of extending the movement within each-province.

Mr. JACOBS:

I understand then the Government has changed its policy in connection with the payment to the provinces of 'sums of money out of the federal treasury?

Sir ROBERT BORDEN:

No. If the hon. gentleman will look at the Agricultural Aid Bill which was passed some time ago, he will find that this is precisely along the same lines.

Resolution reported, read the first and -second -time and concurred in.

Hon. Mr. Crothers thereupon moved for leave to introduce Bill No. 57, to Aid and Encourage Ithe Organization and Co-ordination of Employment Offices.

Motion agreed to and Bill read the first time.

Hon. RODOLPHE LEMIEUX:

I do not intend to oppose this Bill, far from it, but -simply to explain w-hat is involved, to some of the members of the House rvho appeared a little nervous as regards the power given by thi-s Bill to the various navies of the Dominions. I think if Was my hon. friend from Bro-m-e (Mr. McMaster) who said the other day that he did not accept with great complacency the idea that our own. men

should be court-marti ailed in time of peace by, say an officer of the Australian navy. I am bound to say that for my part I am pleased that this legislation is at last brought before Parliament. It is in my judgment a vindication of the policy inaugurated in 1910 by the late Laurier Administration, and I am surprised that the Bill was not introduced long before. I congratulate the minister for having brought forward this measure, which is -simply implementing the resolutions adopted by the Imperial Conference of 1911. You will recollect, Mr. Speaker, that in 1909 the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed a resolution in favour of the establishment of a Canadian navy, and the following year the then Prime Minister introduced a Bill based on that resolution by which the principle of a Canadian navy was launched, which, in cases of emergency, was to be placed at the disposal of the Admiralty. The Bill, for reasons which I need not explain now, was opposed by those who favoured the very principle of that legislation. However, the Bill was passed and the Canadian Navy was created in consequence of that legislation. During the summer of 1911 an Imperial Conference was held in London, and at that conference the Prime Minister of Canada- was present accompanied by the late 'Sir Frederick Borden, and the then Minister of Marine and Fisheries, the Hon. Mr. Brodeur. I have before me the precis which deals with the regulations which were adopted concurrently by the Imperial and the Dominion .authorities as regards the organization of the Canadian Navy. I make bold to say, Mr. Speaker, that this policy, agreed upon by the Imperial Government and the Governments of Australia and of Canada, was the most progressive, and let me say the most wholesome, policy that has ever been adopted as between the Imperial authorities and the Dominion authorities. At that conference it was decided that the naval service forces k>f Canada and of Australia would be exclusively under the control of their respective governments, and the second paragraph of the resolution on the navy deals precisely with that discipline of the naval forces of the dominions which this Bill regulates. It reads:

The training and discipline of the naval forces of the Dominions will be generally uniform with the training and discipline of the fleet of the United Kingdom, and by arrangement, officers and men of the said forces will be interchangeable with those under the control of the British Admiralty.

And, iMr. Speaker, here is another paragraph which is also very interesting for us Canadians:

The ships of each Dominion naval force will hoist at the stern the white ensign as the symbol of the authority of the Crown, and at the jack-staff the distinctive flag of the Dominion.

I have read on many occasions in the Ottawa Citizen and elsewhere that Canada had no flag, and that it was preposterous to assert that she had one. Well, the Imperial authorities think otherwise because it is declared that "the ships of each dominion naval force will hoist at the stern the white ensign as the symbol of the authority of the Crown, and at the jackstaff the distinctive flag of the dominion." I repeat, Mr. Speaker, that this arrangement was a most progressive one and should make every Canadian proud of the navy which was then created. At that same conference, for the first time in the history of Canada, the British Government conceded to the Canadian Government the point that our navy would have charge on the Pacific ocean and on the Atlantic ocean of certain zones which are now before me on the map annexed to the report of the proceedings of the conference in question. We remember how the modest beginnings of the Canadian navy were treated. We remember how our friends on the other side of the House, some, not all of them, spoke of the tin-pot navy.

Mr. R. H. BUTTS (Cape Breton South and Richmond):

What is the meaning of the term "jackstaff"?

Mr. LEMIEUX:

I thought my hon. friend came from the Maritime Provinces, and that, after speaking as a naval expert the other day, he knew what the "jackstaff" was. I was pleased when the Minister, of Marine and Fisheries said that the Niobe and the Rainbow had been exceedingly useful during the present war. If the policy adopted by Parliament in 1910 had been carried out by the succeeding Administration possibly the coast cities of British Columbia would not have had to depend for protection upon the Japanese navy when the war broke out. Be that as it may, I am pleased to learn that the Minister of Naval Affairs has cheerfully accepted the legacy of the Laurier Administration, and is living up to its policy; a policy so 'Canadian and at the same time so British, and so sanely Imperial as was the Laurier naval policy. The Bill which is about to be read the third time simply carries out the policy

arrived at at the Imperial conference of 1911, and I shall support it cordially.

Motion agreed to and Bill read the third time.