Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE BANK DURING THE WAR 353of conscription in order to maintain the Canadian armyat adequate strength. When this was announced in Parliamentby the Prime Minister, he stated that under the voluntaryregime 414,000 men had enlisted. It was, however,the expressed intention of the Government to maintain aCanadian army of hah* a million men in the field, so thatmen were required to make up the deficiency in numbers, aswell as the wastage through the losses of war. The year wasmarked also by the beginning of a new epoch in Canadianfinance, when the Government decided to raise by popularsubscription in small amounts a great internal loan, whichafterwards proved to be only the first of a series.The records of the bank during 1917 reveal the steadyand consistent effort of the management to play its part inthe stupendous task of providing funds for the prosecutionof the war and the maintenance of the commercial fabricof Canada. The financial aid rendered to the prosecution ofthe war was on a larger scale even than during the previousyear. The needs of the Dominion Government had grown tobe very large, as at this time it was not only providing thefunds for its own war expenditures at home, but lending tothe Imperial Government the money to pay for the heavypurchases of munitions and other supplies made by the latterin Canada. In February the Canadian banks were asked bythe Minister of Finance to underwrite $60,000,000 of the ThirdCanadian War Loan. Of this amount the share of The CanadianBank of Commerce was about one-eighth, and the bankswere, of course, expected to take up their proportion of theunderwriting to the extent of the deficiency, should the loan notbe subscribed in full. In addition to underwriting its share,The Canadian Bank of Commerce subscribed "firm" for alarge sum. The issue was to be $150,000,000 twenty-year fiveper cent, bonds, payable in Canada and New York, and thesubscriptions received amounted to $236,654,000, so that thebanks were released from their underwriting obligations. Themoney thus raised did not long suffice for the needs of the