April 30, 1918 (13th Parliament, 1st Session)

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.