But this was only a beginning.  Later in the war Canada stood ready to furnish half a million men to the cause of the Empire, if required.  Nearly 360,000 of that number had been enlisted when the war was two years old.  The greatest problems were encountered in the first year, or rather in the first six months of the war, after which time efforts were systematized, the military machine worked smoothly, and the Dominion’s splendid response to the call to arms was maintained throughout.  General prosperity in the face of adverse conditions happily attended this record of patriotic achievement, and the predominant spirit in Canada was one of buoyant optimism as to the inevitable outcome of the great conflict.

THE “EMDEN” DRIVEN ASHORE A WRECK

During the first three months of the war the German cruiser Emden, operating principally in the Indian ocean, played havoc with British merchantmen, sinking over twenty vessels engaged in far Eastern commerce, besides a Russian cruiser and a French torpedo-boat.  But she met her match in the second week of November, when she was engaged off the Cocos or Keeling group of islands, southwest of Java, by the fast Australian cruiser Sydney and driven ashore a burning wreck after an hour’s fight, with a loss of 280 men.

NAVAL BATTLE OFF CHILEAN COAST

Early in November a fleet of five German cruisers, under Admiral von Spee, encountered a British squadron composed of the cruisers Good Hope, Monmouth and Glasgow, in command of Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, off the coast of Chile, in the Southern Pacific.  Despite a raging gale, a long-range battle ensued, resulting in the defeat of the British and the loss of the flagship Good Hope, with the admiral and all her crew, and of the cruiser Monmouth.  The Glasgow escaped in a damaged condition.  The loss of life was about 1,000, officers and men.

Up to November 15, the struggle in the coast region of Belgium continued with terrific intensity and appalling loss of life on both sides.  The Germans occupied Dixmude November 11, only to lose it on November 13, after a fierce attack by reinforced British troops.

DAILY COST OF WAR

The daily cost of the present war to the nations engaged in the struggle is estimated at not less than $54,000,000 a day—­a sum which fairly staggers the imagination.  This enormous cost of the armies in the field gives a decided advantage to the nation best supplied with the “sinews of war” and may contribute to a shortening of hostilities.  War is indeed a terrible drain upon the resources of a nation and only a few there are that can stand many months of war expenditures like those of August-October, 1914, amounting in the grand aggregate to nearly five billions of dollars ($5,000,000,000).

TURKEY ENTERS THE WAR