Mr. CURRIE:

The matter is very important. Cannot the minister bring the information down to-morrow?

Major-General MEWBURN: In reply to the hon. member for Laval-Two Mountains (Mr. Ethier). Many cases of hardship have already been brought to my notice. In the meantime, the only thing to be done is for the young man to report to the Officer Commanding the Depot Battalion, and state his case there. There should be noi difficulty in his getting a sufficient leave of absence to enable him to wind up his business.

Mr. W. C. KENNEDY:

Would the Minister say how soon Class "A " men in the rural districts will he called?

Major-General MEWBITRN: I cannot

give a definite reply as that matter is left largely to the registrars. We have simply requested that the men in rural districts should not he called until the corresponding classes in the cities have been exhausted.

Mr. H. A. FORTIER (Labelle)': In the case of a boy of twenty or twenty-two with a widowed mother to support, is there any possible chance of his being exempted?

Mr. SPEAKER:

That case has already

been dealt with in the statement of the Minister of Militia and Defence. I must remind the House we are not in committee and hon. gentlemen are going far beyond the latitude allowed on the Orders of the Day.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN:

If the hon. gentleman will look at the minister's statement to-morrow he will see a full reply to the question he has just asked.

Mr. FORTIER:

I had not finished my

question.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I think we can with profit adjourn the discussion to another day.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

Do you rule, Sir, that the hon. gentleman cannot put his question?

Mr. SPEAKER:

The right hon. gentleman will see that if every hon. member were to exercise the right of asking a question upon the Orders of the Day we should be here until six o'clock without advancing the business of the House. That would be carrying the privilege beyond reasonable ^bounds.

Mr. MICHAEL CLARK:

Has not every hon. member of this House exactly the same rights as the Minister of Militia has?

Mr. SPEAKER:

It has long been the custom for a minister when desiring to do so to make a pronouncement upon an important public matter on the Orders of the Day being called, just as has been done by the Minister of Militia and Defence to-day. It is quite proper for hon. members to address questions to the Government on matters of policy but it is not proper that they should enter into what is in effect a discussion when there is no subject before the House.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

I think the

hon. member is entitled to put his question.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I would ask the hon.

member not to be unduly long in putting his question.

Mr. FORTIER:

Is there any possibility of having exemption granted in the case of a young man of twenty or twenty-two who is the sole support of a widowed mother with a family of young children? If there is no provision for his exemption have the Government considered taking over the farm in such a case rather than allowing it to lie idle?

Major-General MEWBURN: There is no power vested in me to do that.

Mr. T. H. THOMPSON (East Hastings):

The minister has said that the men in the rural districts will not be called out until after the men in the cities have been ordered to report but I understand that many young men in rural districts have been .ordered to report on the 1st of May.

Major-General MEWBURN: I did not say that we were not going to call out the men in the rural districts I said a request had been made to the registrars under the Military Service Act that the notices ordering men between twenty and twenty-two years of age inclusive to report be first sent to men in the urban districts. I might say that many men living on farms gave their city address to the registrar when registering. A man living ninety miles from Montreal came in to see me to-day and said his boy had received notice to report, but that it was his own mistake because in registering he had given his residence as Montreal; the mistake is being rectified by the registrar. We are not granting exemption to the men in the rural districts but we are simply doing what I think is fair and reasonable, namely, calling out the men in the urban centres first. It will take some time to deal with those classes, before the men in the rural districts are called.

Mr. H. C. HOCKEN (West Toronto):

May I ask to what the Minister of Militia attributes the better feeling in the province of Quebec?

Mr. BUREAU:

Always true to the Orange Sentinel!

Mr. SPEAKER:

That is not such a question as can properly be put on the Orders of the Day.