Produced by David T. Jones, Al Haines, Ron Tolkien & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net THE STRUGGLE FOR IMPERIAL UNITY [Illustration: logo] MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO [Illustration: Colonel George T. Denison] THE STRUGGLE FOR IMPERIAL UNITY RECOLLECTIONS & EXPERIENCES BY COLONEL GEORGE T. DENISON _President of the British Empire League in Canada Author of "Modern Cavalry," "A History of Cavalry," "Soldiering in Canada," &c._ MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD., TORONTO THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, NEW YORK 1909 RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. PREFACE Some fifteen years ago the late Dr. James Bain, Librarian of the Toronto Public Library, urged me to write my reminiscences. He knew that, as one of the founders of the Canada First party, as Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Imperial Federation League in Canada, then President of it, and after its reorganisation, under the name of the British Empire League in Canada, still President, I had much private information, in connection with the struggle for Imperial Unity, that would be of interest to the public. He was therefore continually urging me to put down my recollections in order that they should be preserved. I put the matter off until the year 1899, when I was retired from the command of my regiment on reaching the age limit. I then wrote my military recollections under the title _Soldiering in Canada_. This was so well received by the Press and by the public that, being still urged to prepare my political reminiscences, I began some years ago to write them, and soon had them finished. In the early part of 1908 Dr. Bain read the manuscript, and then asked me not to delay, as I had intended, but to publish at once. Shortly before his death last spring, he again expressed this wish. I have consulted several of my friends, and in view of their advice now publish this book.