As the CEF took up its training facilities on Salisbury Plain, Hughes wanted the 1st Canadian Division to be commanded by a Canadian general and only very reluctantly accepted a British officer, Lieutenant-General Sir Edwin Alderson, as the commander of the 1st Division when it turned out that there was no qualified Canadian officer. Hughes's insistence on supplying the CEF with Canadian-made equipment, regardless of its quality, made for difficult conditions for the men of the CEF, with many soldiers already complaining about the Ross rifle in training. Alderson replaced the Shield Shovels invented by Hughes's secretary, Ena McAdam, with the standard British Army shovel, much to the relief of the CEF and to Hughes's fury. Hughes constantly sought to undermine Alderson's command, regularly involving himself in divisional matters that were not the normal concern of a defense minister. The first Canadian unit to see action was Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a regiment privately raised by a wealthy Montreal industrialist, Hamilton Gault, which arrived on the Western Front in December 1914, separately from the First Contingent. On 16 February 1915, the CEF arrived in France to head for the front-lines, taking up position at the crucial Ypres Salient in Belgium.