CHAPTER XI

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR

THE Saskatchewan Rebellion had been put down at much labour and cost, and it might have been expected that the Dominion Government would pay increased attention to its militia. But the "Dead Period" of the seventies was to continue through the eighties, and there was to be no speeding up of military preparation until the close of the last decade of the century. The farmers and merchants of Canada seemed to think that their skins were safe so long as they had the British Navy and the Monroe Doctrine to keep foreign invasion from their doors.

The main work done by the Department of Militia and Defence for the next ten years was in connection with the Royal Schools of Instruction. In 1885, the Mounted Infantry School was established at Winnipeg. This was later amalgamated with the Cavalry School Corps, or, as it is now called, the Royal Canadian Dragoons. An additional Infantry School was established in London in 1887. In 1893, the Cavalry School established at Quebec in 1883 was transferred to Toronto.

In 1887, the Permanent Force, used mainly for purposes of instruction, numbered about 1,000 volunteers attested for three years service. This Permanent Force was the heart of the Canadian Militia System. Through it the officers and men of the Active Militia received their training. But there was little thoroughness in the military education given at the schools, and "short course" men might leave the institutions with certificates without ever having fired a rifle, or engaged in, or witnessed, the construction of a trench—and Batoche had taught that nothing was more essential than rifle-fire and trench work. At this time the Active Militia

280