"The first charge upon Canadians is the defence of Canada and this responsibility is far greater today than it was a quarter of a century ago," stated the minister. "In this war we can no longer rely for safety on our distance from the battlefields of Europe. As a result of improvements in the weapons of modern warfare, Canada is in far greater danger of attack than in 1914" The form of our war efforts in 1939 must differ materially from that which was made in 1914, he added.
The First Canadian Division proceeded overseas supplied with complete personal equipment which included the new battle dress. When it operates in the field it will have full mechanical equipment supplied from Canadian sources as far as this is possible. Mr. Rogers pointed out that in a country such as Canada, the need in peace time "is not to burden the state with vast supplies which might never be used, or which would deteriorate or become obsolete before use, but to see to it when a crisis does arise, that industry is swiftly organized to meet the challenge. Under the leadership of the War Supply Board and with the ce-operation of Canadian industry and labour this challenge has been met,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.