were, precisely as in the United Kingdom, under the control of the
responsible civil ministers. The provision that the commander of the
militia must be a British officer was dropped in the revision of the
Militia Act in 1904. In the words of Mr, now Sir Robert, Borden in
1902, words which became increasingly true as years went by; 'Step by
step the colonies have advanced towards the position of virtual
independence so far as their internal affairs are concerned, and in all
the important instances the claim has been made by Canada, has been
resisted at first by the imperial statesmen, and finally has been
conceded, and has proved of advantage both to the Mother Country and to
the colonies.'

{285}

In foreign affairs self-government came more slowly, in the face of
greater opposition, but still steadily and surely. Its coming was more
imperceptible; in fact, many Canadians continued to believe that they
had no voice in the control of foreign policy, and made on this very
ground a strong plea either for setting up some central authority in
which they would have representation, or else for declining to take any
part in imperial wars because they had not and could not have a real
voice in imperial policy.

This belief was well founded, so far as concerned part of the field of
foreign affairs, but it failed to recognize the striking advance made
in other areas. We were like M. Jourdain of Moliere's comedy, who was
surprised to find that he had been talking prose all his life without
knowing it. We had been carrying on a steadily increasing part of our
foreign affairs without consciously labelling them as such. For to-day
foreign affairs are largely commercial affairs, questions of trade and
tariff, of immigration and transportation, of fishery or power or
navigation rights. And it is largely with contiguous countries that
the most important questions arise. Now, as has been seen from the
review of relations with {286} the United States and other foreign
countries in an earlier chapter, Canada had come to have all but
complete control of such affairs.

In 1909, following Australia's example, Canada established a department
of External Affairs for 'the conduct and management of international or
intercolonial negotiations, so far as they may appertain to the
government of Canada.' In introducing this measure Sir Wilfrid
declared: 'All governments have found it necessary to have a department
whose only business wi