nopportune view
that Canada should not fight in a war when she had had no part in
shaping the policy that went before it. They claimed to stand where
practically all Canadians had stood a generation before. They forgot
that meanwhile the world, and Canada, had moved forward.

The ordeal of battle put to the test the facts and the theories of
empire which had been shaping in the years which have been reviewed.
The splendid response of the whole Empire to the call of need proved
that it was not the weak and crumbling structure that enemies had hoped
and zealous friends had feared. Of their own free will the Dominions
and even India poured out their treasures of men and money in measure
far beyond what any central authority could have ordained. Freedom was
justified of her children, and the British Empire proved its right to
exist by its very difference from the Prussian Empire. When General
Botha and General Smuts, after crushing with ease a rebellion which
under a different imperial policy would have been triumphant, led the
army of the Crown in triumph against the German dominions to which it
had once been proposed to banish {319} them, they gave a most dramatic
proof of the power of the unseen bonds of confidence and liberty.

Yet, as the war proved, the Empire had not yet reached its final stage.
Now that the Dominions helped to pay the piper, henceforth they would
insist on a share in calling the tune. That the decision as to peace
and war must no longer rest solely with the government of Great
Britain, however wisely that power had been used in this instance,
became the conviction of the many instead of the few. It was still
matter for serious debate how that greater voice could be attained, and
the conflict between the policy of consultation between existing
governments and the policy of creating a new central over-government,
which had marked the years before, bade fair to mark the years after
the war as well.

The subsidiary question of naval defence had also its after-lights.
Those in Canada who had urged the contribution policy had the gloomy
satisfaction of seeing their prophecy of speedy war with Germany
fulfilled. Those who had urged the policy of a Canadian navy had the
more cheerful satisfaction of seeing that the only 'emergency' was that
which faced the Kaiser's fleet, bottled up by {320} the vastly superior
allied forces. The battle of the Falkland Islands, redeeming the
defeat at Coronel, p