AUTONOMY ISSUE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20077, 25 October 1939, Page 7

AUTONOMY ISSUE

CONSCRIPTION BOGEY

PREMIER OF QUEBEC

APPEAL TO ELECTORS

ATTITUDE TO WAR

(Reed. Oct. 25, 9 a.m.) MONTREAL, Oct. 24,

Outstanding questions on which the Quebec province will vote in the elections to-morrow are provincial autonomy, conscription and Canada’s participation in the war. A spirited month’s campaign, marked by allegations of gangster methods and misrepresentation on the conscription issue followed the action of the Premier of Quebec, Mr. M. Duplessis, in calling for an election “two years before the end of the five-year term on the ground that the Federal war measures threatened the autonomy of the provinces. Mr. Duplessis charged the Dominion with attempting centralisation and assimilation.

This drew Quebec Federal Cabinet Ministers into the campaign alongside the Liberal Party leader, Mr. Adelard Godbout. The Federal Minister of Justice, Mr. E. Lapointe, announced in Quebec that Federal Cabinet Ministers would resign if the Duplessis Government were re-elected, making a Federal election almost certain in that event.

Offer As Champion

Despite repeated assurances that the Dominion would not countenance conscription and similar pledges by other party leaders, Mr. Duplessis campaigned as the champion of anti-eonscriptioi. Mr. Duplessis, closing a Montreal rally, said: "This battle is for the survival, not for the success of one parly as Government, but of the province and race. The Quebec Government did not put up with Imperialists. It is time it was known here and in England that we are not strangers. We are here by right of age. discovery and history and intend to stay.”

Mr. Paul Gouin, leader of the Action Liberale, said that national conscription was needlessly a major issue. All parties would oppose it if Ottawa tried to enforce conscription. It would be a fight to the bitter end.