LINK WITH CANADA

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 190, 10 May 1944, Page 4

LINK WITH CANADA

Training Of New Zealand

Airmen

THE INFLUENCE OF WAR

The sending of New Zealanders to Canada to do their air training had forged one of the strongest links possible, said Mr. Gordon Glennie in a talk on Canada to members of the M elliugtou Rotary Club yesterday. It would, he said, give those boys a knowledge of the country they did not have before, and at the same time give many Canadians a knowledge of this country which should lead to the growth of mutual goodwill and understanding. Canada was born of a wide variety ot peoples and influences, differences in races, religions, and ways ot lite, so that it was not an easy country to understand. Its people had been transplanted from all parts of the earth but were mostly European in stock. Of its 11,500,009, 50 per cent, were of AngloSaxon descent, 30 per cent. French, and the other 20 per cent, were from various countries, chiefly European. Of the tota. 9S per cent, were British subjects, wnicn indicated that, the people who had goue to Canada were readily assimilated. The French, of course, were the true Canadians, the descendants of the pioneer white race which settled there in the beginning. Though there were only 65,000 French iu Canada in l<6o, today there were 3,500,000. Most of these lived in the province of Quebec, the province whose people had been guaranteed their own language, religion, ivystem of education, and laws (the Code Napoleon). These rights the French of Quebec province were determined not to relinquish at anv cost. They hud a very powerful Press, and Montreal, the chief city, was the second largest French city in the world. So it would seem that within die British Empire was a complete French community living their own lives in their own way. The language of the province was dual—French and English—and there was very little inter-marriage between the two peoples. There was a barrier between them which he thought only time would weaken. For instance, Quebec province was being industrialized and its resources exploited by British and American people and companies, and the French could not do anything about it. But there was no racial problem in. Canada, save perhaps that concerning the Orientals in the far west. It was more a difference of ideologies than anything else. ' , , . x . Mr. Glennie said that the impact ot war on Canada was responsible for great changes and progress. Her national income ’Was double what it was before the war, and Canada was spending eleven times as much as before the war. Production had doubled in four years, and so had the number of men employed in production. Her output in ships and munitions was an outstanding achievement. She had built 500 naval vessels, patrol boats and destroyers, and played a very important part in convoying freighters across the Atlantic. i In view of her growth and the huge part she was playing in the Empire’s vwar economy, Canada would play an important role in the post-war order, which no one would have thought possible a few years ago. War had given Canada a new conception of herself, as her place in the councils of nations would be largely determined by industrial and productive capacity. To that end Canada was already busily engaged on posh-war planning, in order that she should have working programmes to put into performance as soon as hostilities ceased.